The school's 70 A-level students passed 86 per cent of their exams with grades A* to C - with 11 per cent at the new A* grade - and managed an impressive average score of 830 points per pupil.

Head teacher Sally Whyte said the results bode well for the expansion of the sixth form in September, when the new Olivier Centre will open, allowing for twice the annual intake.

"The results are very good, " she said. "It's all very exciting and the new building is looking fantastic."

Budding linguist Kristiane Wentzel, 18, from Putney, managed A grades in English Literature and Spanish and a B in French, and will now go on to study modern languages at Newcastle University.

She said: My dad is German but they don't offer German at school, so I thought I'd reach a compromise by doing two other languages. I don't think any of us are fluent yet, but we can get by. I'm going to continue with French and Spanish and I might do German as well. I want to be a journalist."

Sally Fletcher, 18, from Streatham, achieved three As in French, Spanish and further maths, along with an A* in further maths.

She said: "I didn't know whether to go for languages or maths, but now I'm going to study French and Spanish at Durham and I'm really looking forward to it. After university I might do a law conversion course, but at the moment it's just an idea."

Young pianist Mimi Marszalek, 18, from Southfields, was awarded three A grades in biology, chemistry and music, and will now study medicine at St George's in Tooting, after testing out her enthusiasm for the profession through volunteer work at the University of Central London hospital.

She said: "It's something I aspired to when I was younger, and volunteering backed that up. You need to get out there and see what it's like, because watching it on TV is very different to being there in a busy environment with sick patients."

Georgia Hill, 18, from Beauclerc Road in Hammersmith, managed two A*s in English literature and religious studies and an A in history, which she will go on to study at the University of East Anglia.

"I'm very pleased," she said. "I was confident but a bit unsure that I had done that well."