WEST Cornwall GCSE pupils followed national suit with most local schools celebrating their best results.

Among the hundreds of happy faces celebrating the end of compulsory education was cancer survivor Tamsyn Jilbert from Cape Cornwall School. The brave teenager was rewarded with some magnificent grades, despite missing a year of school after she was diagnosed with bone cancer.

She said: "It has been hard but I am just over the moon; it's hard to describe how I feel.

"But thanks to Kernow Cyber School I got my GCSEs and I can go to Penwith College."

Her head teacher, Brett Elliot, who took over the helm last year, was also over the moon with the results.

He puts the school's best results yet down to hard work and dedicated staff, students and parents. He said: "The children worked extremely hard so I am really pleased and I hope these results give them all they need to go to college and progress further."

Humphry Davy School's star student achieved a staggering 13 A* or A grades.

Head teacher Bill Marshall said: "I am absolutely delighted at the outstanding results today which are easily the best in the school's history and I wish to pass on my warmest congratulations to all our GCSE students who worked so hard. On behalf of the governing body I would like to thank the staff for their dedication and parents for their ongoing support which made it possible. They can all be very proud today."

The school was particularly pleased with its outstanding GCSE PE results where over half of all the students attained an A* or A grade and its music BTEC First Diploma students where an 87 per cent attained an A* or A grade.

The results at Mounts Bay School were also hailed as the best to date.

Of all the 717 pupils who attended one of the five West Cornwall schools, including Hayle and St Ives, 365 achieved the benchmark of attaining five or more GCSE passes at grades A* to C in English and maths, a pleasing 51 per cent.

Nearly 71 per cent achieved five or more passes at GCSE at grades A* to C in general.

In particular the head teachers and governors said they would like to congratulate Kieran at Mounts Bay for gaining 12 A* and 5 A grades making him the top performing student in the school's history.

They have also extended their congratulations to Kate at Cape Cornwall who gained 3 A* and 8 A grades, Sean at Hayle for his 3A* and 8 A grades, Rebecca at St Ives for gaining 7.5 A*s, 3 As and an ICT Level 2 First Certificate in OCR Nationals and at Humphry Davy, Freya, Imogen and Emily who achieved 30 A* and 5 A Grades between them. GCSE results from Five Islands' School in the Isles of Scilly were again exceptionally good, with 86 per cent achieving five results at grades A to C. Head teacher Bryce Wilby said it was an advance on last year's 80 per cent figure and showed a consistent trend of improving results over the past three years.