JUBILANT pupils are celebrating a bumper crop of exam results after another rise in A-level passes.

Students across the borough collectively managed to beat the national average pass rate of 96.6 per cent of grades A to E by achieving a figure of 98.5 per cent.

It means Lewisham's pass rate went up two per cent from last year, when it was 96.5 per cent.

A total of 2,406 pupils took exams in one of the borough's six state education centres.

At Lewisham College, Lewisham Way, 100 per cent of pupils were awarded A to E grades, while 96.7 per cent of pupils at the Hillsyde Sixth Form Consortium, Dartmouth Road, Sydenham, made the mark.

Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College, Pepys Road, New Cross, had a pass rate of 99 per cent, followed closely by a figure of 98.8 per cent at Christ the King Sixth Form College, Belmont Grove, Lewisham.

Crossways Academy, Sprules Road, Brockley, notched up a 98.3 per cent pass rate and Prendergast School, Hilly Fields, Adelaide Avenue, totalled 98.2 per cent.

Crossways Academy principal Anthony Bravo said: "It is fantastic news and a credit to the staff and the attitude of our students."

He added: "We have increased stay-on rates, exam results and the numbers going to university."

Prendergast School headteacher Erica Pienaar said: "These are great results. Our girls will be wonderful university undergraduates and I am very proud of them all."

The borough's independent schools also maintained a glowing set of results.

Sydenham High School, Westwood Hill, Sydenham, and Colfe's School, Horn Park Lane, Lee, both received 100-per-cent pass rates.

And 98 per cent of students at St Dunstan's College, Stanstead Road, Catford, were awarded A to E grades.

Some fine individual success stories emerged as results were released across England and Wales on August 17.

Straight-A student Eleanor Burton, 18, is looking forward to starting an English degree at Cambridge University.

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