The principal of East London Science School has praised the hard work of the school’s second ever GCSE cohort.

Newham Recorder: East London Science School pupils Apria Benmbarek, Yunus Ali and Ayyash Muhamed. Picture: Melissa PageEast London Science School pupils Apria Benmbarek, Yunus Ali and Ayyash Muhamed. Picture: Melissa Page (Image: Archant)

David Perks highlighted a series of improvements on last year's results, including the percentage of pupils passing the EBacc - English, maths, the sciences, geography or history and a language - up from 28 per cent to 32pc.

In addition, four pupils achieved straight grade 9s - the highest posisble - in chemistry, biology and physics - with 14 pupils bagging the top grade in the latter.

The amount of pupils securing a good pass - a grade 5 or above - in English was 70pc, while in maths it was 55pc.

Just over a quarter - 26pc - of all results were grade 7 to 9 - roughly equivalent to an A or A*.

Top achievers include Apria Benmbarek, who got five 9s, six 8s, an A and a distinction, Yunus Ali, who got seven 9s, three 8s, one 6 and an A*, and Ayyash Muhamed, who got six 9s, four 8s, one 7 and an A*.

Mr Perks said: "I am very proud of the achievements of all of our hardworking pupils and especially the strength of their performance in the sciences. This bodes well for the future as we head towards our first set of A-level results next year.

"Other really pleasing achievements including a big step forward in computer science and a very strong set of results in English.

"We pride ourselves on giving as many pupils as possible the chance to achieve in challenging and difficult subjects. I think we have now shown that we can turn this into good grades for most of our students."