Bradford students were celebrating their successes in the GCSE exams today.

Pupils flocked to schools across the district to face the agonising opening of the results envelope.

One school that had high hopes - and achieved them - was Challenge College.

In its first year of GCSE results the newly-opened school at North Avenue, Frizinghall, had 37.3 per cent of its 150 pupils achieving the benchmark five passes at grade A* to C.

Headteacher Gareth Dawkins said it was an outstanding achievement for the school in what had been a difficult time for pupils and staff.

"These children have been in three different buildings over the last 18 months," he said, "They've lost about five to six weeks of schooling over the last two years. But none of that needs to be used as an excuse. In spite of all the disruptions, the children have done so well."

Mr Dawkins put the success down to hard work from all involved.

"We have got a lot of ambitious pupils, parents and staff," he said, "You put those three together, all sharing the same agenda, and you have a great recipe for success."

At Beckfoot School in Bingley pupils built on last year's best-ever results.

This year, 46 per cent of pupils secured five good passes.

"This is a 13 per cent increase over the last two years," said head David Horn, "We are also delighted that 95 per cent of our year group achieved at least one GCSE."

Outstanding pupils at the school included Lauren Alexander, Nadia Khan and Naomi Lewis, each scoring a perfect ten straight A grades.

Alan Davies, headteacher at Whitcliffe Mount School in Cleckheaton, said the school had consolidated on last year's success.

"Forty per cent have gained the top five A to C grade and 97 per cent have got a GCSE pass which is an exact match of our performance last year," he said.

And nationally, for the first time in years, boys have been reported to be narrowing the exam success gender gap.

Although girls still continue to outperform boys, with 62.4 per cent receiving grades A to C, the figure is exactly the same as last year.

But boys results at the same level have jumped marginally from 53.4 to 53.6.

Maths was the most widely exam taken this year, with 713,000 pupils facing the paper. But employers were concerned that the pass rates in the subject dropped from 51.3 per cent to 50.2 per cent this year.

And the figures also suggested that the gap between the highest and lowest achievers, which was already among the widest in the industrialised world, was widening.

Pictured celebrating their GCSE successes are Maha Mezer and Sabia Bi, pupils at Challenge College.