IT was all smiles across Bury’s colleges on Thursday as students received their A-level results.

Sixth formers from Holy Cross College, Bury College and Bury Grammar School celebrated getting top marks and sealing places at universities across the country.

Many students were taking the new group of tougher reformed exams in subjects such as English, history and sciences, with huge numbers smashing personal targets and contributing to increased overall performances from their institutions.

But the day is not so much about statistics as it is about emotion, with common themes throughout the day being joy and relief.

Bury Grammar headmaster Devin Cassidy said: “It is always a pleasure seeing their faces.

“There are a number of boys who have opened their results and haven’t believed what they were seeing and they were over the moon.

“One asked me to read out the results back to him because he didn’t believe he had done so well.”

Daveth Frost, principal at Holy Cross, said: “This is why we do it, it's very exciting.

“Their relief is palpable when they see they have the grades they wanted.

“They have all done brilliantly well, but they are really ready now to go off to university.”

Damian Hornsby, a physics teacher at the college, added: “I am delighted for them all, especially when you see what they are going on to – Oxford, Cambridge, London, St Andrew’s.

“We are just a stepping stone and they have their futures ahead of them now.”

Eight prodigies from Holy Cross will take up offers from Oxford or Cambridge universities.

And 61 students at the Manchester Road college achieved at least three A* or A grades, with almost half of all grades awarded being A*, A or B.

More than one third of Bury Grammar School sixth formers achieved A* to A grades this year.

Thirty-nine students at the Bridge Road centre obtained a string of A*s, As and Bs, setting them up for places at prestigious universities.

Bury College, in Market Street, celebrated significant numbers of students achieving 100 per cent pass rates and triple distinctions in vocational courses.

And at St Monica’s Sixth Form Centre, in its last year before closure, 11 students achieved a BTEC/Cambridge Technical Level 3 specialist work-related qualification, equivalent to three A-levels.

Many others at the college, in Bury Old Road, Prestwich, achieved a qualification in a range equivalent to one or two A Levels.

Nationally, top A-level grades increased for the first time in six years.

A* and A grades were awarded to 26.3 per cent of entries — up by 0.5 percentage points compared with last year — with boys overtaking girls in top grades.