Students will finally find out if all the hard work has paid off when they receive their GCSE results today.

Secondary schools throughout Newham will be reopening their doors early in the morning to hand out the dreaded envelopes to nervous Year 11s.

If they receive the grades they need, the 15 and 16-year-olds could be heading on to to further studies, or they might have chosen to enter the world of work.

Newham schools bucked the national trend last year as results improved for the ninth year running.

The percentage of young people achieving five or more A* to C GCSEs or equivalents including English and Maths - the Government’s gold standard - rose from 59 per cent in 2011 to 62 per cent in 2012 - a 15 per cent rise in overall performance since 2009.

Newham now has a third of its schools performing at above 70 per cent, with Little Ilford School in Browning Road, Manor Park, named the borough’s most improved school, seeing its GCSE results soar by 14 per cent from 57 per cent to 71 per cent.

Other schools whose results significantly improved were Forest Gate Community School which saw its GCSE A* - C grades increase by 7 per cent to 61 per cent, Sarah Bonnell saw its results also improve by 7 per cent to 63 per cent and St Bonaventure’s saw an 8 per cent increase from 66 per cent to 74 per cent of its pupils achieving top grades.

For full coverage throughout the day, keep visiting this website where we are also carrying a live blog.

You can also keep an eye on the coverage by following us on Twitter @NewhamRecorder or purchase a copy of next week’s edition of the Newham Recorder.

For a round-up of last week’s A-level results see pages 4 & 5 of this week’s paper.