Results days are always met with excitement and intrepidation. And the introduction of the reformed GCSEs heightened the emotions in many schools and households across the country.

While the first cohort of pupils took the numerical grades, at Monmouth we chose to continue with the more challenging IGCSES and letter grades because it is still the predominant language.

Our girls delivered an outstanding set of results as the school achieved its best-ever A* performance at GCSE level.

An impressive 49% of all grades were A* – emphatically eclipsing the 42% of A*s we were awarded last year.

Almost half of all grades were at A* and a remarkable 90% of all grades were at A* to B which showed that the hard work of staff and pupils certainly paid off.

The results were excellent across the board with 11 girls achieving 10 A*s or more.

We recognise the importance that science, technology, engineering and maths plays in our girls’ education. Three girls, in particular, deserve a mention.

Budding inventor Kia, who has appeared on BBC television’s Dragons’ Den programme, achieved eight A*s, two As and a distinction in additional maths. Kia became a UK Junior Engineer of the Year in 2015 after co-creating a gadget, called Crikey Bikey, which is a harness to help parents teach their children to ride a bike safely.

Another talented engineer, Lisa, who designed an award-winning car dehumidifier and air freshener called Xorbit, was awarded 10 A*s and a distinction in additional maths.

Niamh attained 10 A*s and distinction in additional maths after earlier helping the school to win a £100,000 prize in a national green energy makeover competition. All three are excellent role models and an inspiration to the younger pupils at the school.