THIS year's GCSE results at both Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls and Monmouth School have been outstanding.

There was a 99.14 percent pass rate (A* to C grade) at HMSG and 97.8 percent pass rate at Monmouth School.

The percentage of A*/A grades at HMSG is an impressive 71.23 percent and 58.2 percent at Monmouth School, which compares with the national average of 20.7 percent

92.47 percent of the grades at HMSG were A* to B and 84.7 percent at Monmouth School.

Amongst the top performing pupils at HMSG were Sheena Wong, Madeleine Daniels, Preethika Mahalingam, Alice Reynolds and Sarah Rhodes, all of whom gained at least 11 A* GCSEs. Caroline Bowler, Emily Collier, Josephine Colter, Iona Nixon and Harriet Protheroe also gained at least 10 A* GCSEs. In addition, 24 girls at HMSG achieved at least 10 A / A* GCSEs.

At Monmouth School, Adam Greenwood, Jonathan Griffiths, Gareth Llewelyn and Oliver Clayton all gained at least 10 A / A* GCSEs, with William Warner achieving 10 A* GCSEs. A further 19 pupils at Monmouth School achieved at least 6 A* grades.

With excellent results not just confined to the classroom, a number of pupils at Monmouth School also play cricket at county level. Jac Thomas, who today collected his GCSE results, was this summer awarded one of three chess awards for outstanding British Juniors. The ICC / Leonard Barden Award 2008 was awarded to one young player from each of Scotland, England and Wales. Jac holds the title of both Welsh and British champion for his age group, and in 2006 he became the youngest player, at just 14 years old, to represent the Welsh Men's Team at the Chess Olympiad in Turin. Recently Jac came 4th out of 250 players in an international tournament in Normandy.