THERE were smiles all round at two schools as students opened envelopes containing their GCSE results.

Pupils at Newman Catholic College, Harlesden Road, Harlesden and Queens Park Community School, Ayelstone Avenue, Brondesbury Park, found out the long-awaited results of the exams which mark the end of their compulsory education.

At Newman Catholic College principal Richard Kolka said that results had improved on last year but many boys had been disappointed due to a change in grade boundaries in English.

He said: "I am really pleased with how hard the English staff and the students worked, they put so much work in, but the boundary for getting a C changed by about 10 marks so some people whose results we were 95 per cent certain of got a D."

One boy, Cavil Noronha, exemplified this spirit of hard work at the school as he joined Newman from Africa after the start of year 10 with a low level of English and achieved a B grade in the subject.

His other results included five A*s.

At Queens Park Community School many of the students were pleased with their results and excited about going on to the next stage of education.

Danny Tate, who has French family, got eight A*s and four As, including full marks in all of his French exams bar one, in which he dropped four marks.

He said: "I got an A* in history as well which I was really pleased about. I am going to go on to do something sciency in the future but I haven't decided yet. When I rang up my family to tell them my granny cried down the phone as she was so happy."

Amanda Yuen, QPCS, got six A*s and four As, and said: "I am going to stay here to do A levels and it's going to be a lot of hard work, I am going to have to really concentrate. I don't really have a favourite subject but I was pleased with my results."

Omar A Mohamed, QPCS, got eight A*s, two As, two Bs and said: "I am planning to stay here next year, I really want to go to Oxford in the future so I have to work hard, but I am looking forward to it."