Thousands of young people have been tearing open envelopes containing their exam results. I paid a visit to Royal Docks Community School and Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre to meet students as they received their results.

GCSE results are up from last year to 59 per cent of pupils obtaining five GCSEs A*- C including English and maths and our AS and A-level results are now beating the England average. These results could not be achieved without the support of our teaching staff and hard work of our students.

What impressed me most about both the collegiate and the school was the determination of the young people to succeed and the commitment of the headteachers and staff, encouraging them to develop a love of learning and pursue academic excellence.

At Royal Docks I met pupils whose results enabled them to access scholarships to prestigious colleges and those heading to Newham Collegiate, had chosen their learning institutions to help further their ambitions and was the best choice for them.

The collegiate was founded by the council and a group of the borough’s secondary schools – Cumberland, Kingsford, Lister, Little Ilford, Plashet, Rokeby, Royal Docks, Sarah Bonnell and Stratford School Academy. We invested in it as our young people deserve a high quality place of learning that will equip them to attend the best universities.

It opened last September and its first set of AS results this year have been outstanding. Sixty-five pc of pupils achieved A-B grades and 85pc achieved A-C. Based on these results the collegiate would be amongst the highest achieving A-level institutions in the country when it posts its full set of results next year.

The high level performance we have seen this year bodes well for the future of the borough and its young people, I hope like me you will be celebrating their outstanding achievements. More from Sir Robin