But the deputy principal of Mansfield's West Notts College, Tim Grant, said that regardless of what people say about A-Levels getting easier, staff at the college have seen how hard pupils have worked for their results.

• Click the green 'play' icon to watch a video report from the Sutton Centre school in Ashfield.

"This is a great testimony to the hard work and commitment of all the students and staff at the college and comes at the end of a great year for us.

"We had Ofsted come to the college in May and they told us the college was outstanding. Every year we work harder with our students and encourage them to do the best that they can do.

"We are all delighted with our fantastic results and wish all of our students well for the future," he said.

Health studies students Sophie Dunlop, Abigail Gordon, Katie Vickers and Kayleigh Whittaker were amongst the first to collect their results from the Derby Road college, and were all over the moon with their grades.

Said Sophie, who is now waiting to be accepted by De Montfort University: "I'm really happy, I was really nervous before and it was a bit of a sleepless night but I'm really pleased with my results."

Mature student Andrew Timmons, of Cropwell Court, Mansfield, was also celebrating the good news at the college: "I got a C in English and I'm coming back next year to complete my history course," said the 51-year-old.

"I'm really pleased because being a mature student it's taken me a lot to get here. I left school early to work and I've always thought I sold myself short and wanted to come back and do it.

"It was a bit nerve racking at first but all of the people here are great and I got lots of support."

Another great success story for the college was James Donovan, who managed to achieve an A in media along with an A grade for law and a D in business studies at A/S Level - despite being partially sighted.

"I'm hoping to go to Nottingham Trent University now to study law. It was very challenging but I've had lots of support from the teachers and staff." Said James.

Elsewhere in Mansfield, All Saints' School celebrated 97 per cent of its students getting A to E A-Level passes, with star pupil Natalie Cox achieving five A grades.

Said acting headteacher, Bernard Monaghan: "The achievements are the result of commitment, determination and the hard work of both staff and students with the support of parents and governors – a great team effort!"

There were cheers and tears across Ashfield as hundreds of A-Level and AS-Level students collected their long-awaited results.
But the tears shed were mainly ones of happiness rather than disappointment after another record-breaking year for A-Level entries.

Nationally, the pass rate has risen for the 26th successive year, with 97.2 per cent graded A to E, increasing from 96.9 per cent.

Official figures from the exam boards show that 25.9 per cent of the entries were graded A – an increase from 25.3 per cent last year.

There were also a record 827,737 A-level entries and 1.13 million AS-levels this year from more than 600,000 students.

Delighted Sarah Clarke, who attended Sutton Centre, achieved an A, B and C and will go ti Loughborough University to study Media, Communication and Society.

She told Chad: "I'm really happy with my results and looking forward to going to university. I hope to become a magazine editor one day."

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