Kingston borough schools are celebrating A Level success today as students took a pause from their lengthy summer holidays to open their all important brown envelopes early this morning and set sights on their next educational steps.

Despite the disruption caused by Covid and repeated lockdowns, many of the schools reported that students who took their exams this year achieved better results than the teacher assessed grades given to Sixth Form pupils in 2021.

For England as a whole, 35.9% of A Levels were awarded at A*/A, which was down from 44.3% in 2021. Looking at London, some 39% achieved A*/A this year compared to 47.9% in 2021.

Hollyfield School in Surbiton said: "A very proud day at Hollyfield: 50% of our students achieved A*-B grades at A Level and 25% achieved A*A. Our BTEC results were also fantastic, with 87% of our students receiving Merits or Distinctions."

Kingston Grammar School also exceeded expectations with 90% of students securing their first or second choices at Oxbridge or Russel Group universities.

Particular honours go to the 16 students who achieved an incredible clean sweep of A*s: Samuel Arwas, Amelia Barnes, Charlie Canning, Alice Cassidy, Anna Duggan, James Fairhurst, Lucas Griffin, Nick Long, Marcus Merritt, Jordan Miao, Alex Middleton, Heerthana Peterarulthas, Freddie Pflanz, Finlay Pickrell, Sebastian Rugina and Harry Wilkinson.

The summer of 2022 saw the first set of examined A Level results for The Kingston Academy: "A fantastic first ever set of A Level results. We are so proud of our History Makers and our awesome team of staff on all that they have achieved together."

Surbiton High School added: "Congratulations to everyone who has received their A-Level results today, we couldn't be more proud of you all."

Proud Year 13 Southborough High School students this morning. (Image: Southborough High School)

Nationally, the number of students accepted on to UK degree courses has fallen this year. A total of 425,830 people have had places confirmed - down 2% on the same point last year, according to data published by the university admissions service.

In 2021, a record 435,430 people, from the UK and overseas, had places confirmed. A total of 20,360 students did not get a place this year down from 24,260 in 2019.

For the first batch of students to receive T-level results on Thursday, 370 - 71% of applicants - have gained a place in higher education.

The university admissions service, Ucas, said there are more than 27,000 courses in clearing, as well as a range of apprenticeship opportunities, for people who need to consider other options.

More than 100 operators at Kingston University have been working tirelessly throughout today answering queries and guiding applicants through the Clearing process.

The University's line opened at 8am this morning and hundreds of calls were taken within the first hour alone.

Kingston University Provost Professor Helen Laville, who has been helping out on the Clearing hotline, has spoken to a range of students, including those excitedly confirming their place at Kingston, discussing changes they would like to make to their subject choice and others deciding to come to the University through Clearing.

She said: "I've spoken to a student who was changing direction from arts to healthcare and wanted to find out about our life sciences programmes.

"It's so rewarding to talk to the students, discuss their options and to hear their delight when we can make them an offer."