EMOTIONS ran high at Ormiston Chadwick Academy (OCA) in Widnes after a record-breaking year of GCSE results.

A total of 68 per cent of pupils achieved five A* to C grades with English and maths – up 15 per cent.

A quarter of all students achieved five A* and A grades or above.

Principal Tuesday Humby was ecstatic describing it as the 'best day ever'.

She said: "This is the first year of results from the new curriculum we brought in at the end of the 2014 academic year – so the stakes were high for us.

"The year group joined the academy bang on national average, so we set them the challenge to be anything but.

"Like GB Olympians they rose to it, they stepped up, they grafted and there was a lot of fun along the way.

"I am so immensely proud of them today and so grateful to be leading such a wonderful team of staff who have helped make our vision for them a reality.

"I’m also just so delighted for those parents who took a gamble on us over the last couple of years when the academy was so young, so new, with no track record of its own and recovering from what happened at the predecessor school.

"I promised them we would create a school that they could be proud of, that would compete with the best, which would nurture and stretch every child.

"Today is a victory for those parents too and the loyal community that means so much to us here – thank you so much for your faith in OCA.”.