IT was celebration time as students picked up their long-awaited A and AS level results.

Staff and pupils at colleges and sixth forms cracked open champagne in what has been another record year for A level exam success.

Talbot Heath School saw a 100 per cent pass rate with an all-time record 64 per cent of pupils achieving A grade. Head teacher Christine Dipple said: "Students and staff have worked very hard to achieve these results, everyone is delighted."

Deputy head at St Peter's Comprehensive School in Bournemouth, Angie Wazejewski, said: "It was another highly successful year for Year 13 students with many of them achieving the top grades including at least 10 with a string of three and four subjects at grade A."

A superb individual performance came from Tim Granger, 18, who was joint top candidate in the country for all the sciences out of 19,174 candidates. Fellow pupil John Newbery achieved one of the top five marks nationally for A level physics.

Staff at Bournemouth School for Boys said they were "very happy" with a pass rate of grade E and above of 96.5 per cent. There was a 27.2 per cent pass rate at grade A and 26 per cent for grade B.

Students and staff at Bournemouth and Poole College were overjoyed with their 91 per cent overall pass rate. The college achieved a 100 per cent pass rate in 14 subjects and their highest ever pass rate in science subjects.

Julie-Anne Houldey, marketing manager, said: "With such a high volume of students sitting A levels they start off from various levels and therefore have done very well to succeed."

Corfe Hills students achieved an overall pass rate of 97 per cent - Iain Gilham, Nicholas Weaver, Hannah White and Michael Watkins gained four grade As. Michael, who will be reading Law at Oxford, was one of five top candidates out of 19,000 to receive a certificate for English Literature.

Independent Canford School headmaster John Lever said: "When there are national concerns about the flight from 'harder' subjects such as Maths, well over one third of Canford's entry sat the A-Level and over 75 per cent of them achieved A grades, a percentage almost matched in Economics."

Two Canford girls - both local - Teresa Thurston and Katherine Noon, each achieved five A grades.

An astounding 99.4 per cent of students at The Blandford School achieved passes at A level making it the best ever results for the school. Every student achieved at least two A levels.

Headteacher Sally Wilson said: "I am so delighted at these results which students and staff should be very proud of."

A spokesperson for Oakmead College of Technology said: "We are delighted with the results obtained in our A level courses in which we gained an 81 per cent pass overall with 100 pass rate in all VCE double awards. Our results have improved by 31 per cent this year."

Bournemouth School for Girls achieved a 99.7 per cent pass rate.

One of their many success stories was 800-metre runner Charlotte Moore, 18, who achieved three A grade A levels and a B grade at AS level.

Another was Nicole Allcott whose four A grades and one AS will take her to Cambridge.

Sandra Coe, head mistress of Wentworth College, said: "The results are as we expected. We are particularly pleased with our physics result this year."

At the combined Christchurch VI Form comprising the town's three secondary schools - Grange, Highcliffe and Twynham - a 98 per cent pass rate was achieved with 66 per cent of passes at grade C or better and 37 per cent grades A and B.

Nick O'Connor, deputy head at Highcliffe School, said: "There have been significant improvements in top grades and students achieving grades higher than expected based on GCSE predictions and it is excellent to see more boys getting top grades alongside the girls."

Dr Terry Fish, head at Twynham where more than 40 per cent of A-level candidates gained A and B grades, said: "We are absolutely delighted. These are outstanding results and a great tribute to the students and staff."

Records were smashed at Poole Grammar with students beating the school's previous points total by achieving an average of 387 - 15 points higher than last year.

In sixteen subjects a 100 per cent pass rate was gained and overall 98 per cent of all entries were successful.

But the biggest news of the day was the outstanding achievement by students Daniel Newman and David Knowles who both notched up an incredible seven A grades each.

Daniel will study medicine at Oxford and in addition to his sciences gained an A at AS Latin, which he largely studied independently.

Head Boy David will read Natural Sciences at Cambridge.

Both boys also scored in the top five nationally in their physics exam.

There were many other outstanding individual performances including twins David and James Weddup who both achieved six As.

Delighted headmaster Alex Clarke said: "In addition to these quite remarkable individual performances it has been good to see such strength across the range of students who have produced this high average performance."

Not to be outdone by the boys, students at Parkstone Grammar recorded a 100 per cent pass rate and again beat their UCAS points score per student by 15 points to record an average of 343.7.

High achievers were Naomi Adey and Hayley Mitchell who both gained five A grades.

Records continued to be broken at Purbeck School where the overall pass rate was expected to be 96 per cent.

Two particularly successful students were Alex Harris from Swanage who gained six grade As and James Lillington from Wareham who achieved five grade As.

In line with schools in the rest of the conurbation there was yet more record-breaking success at Lytchett Minster School.

Students equalled last year's 98 per cent pass rate but a whopping 70 per cent of those were A to C grades.

Impressive individual results were recorded by Martyn Hann from Upton and Matthew Mason from Lytchett Matravers who secured four A grades apiece.

Top achieving girls were Katie Alger, Fiona Freeman, Julia Guest and Katie Noel who gained at least 3A grades at A-level. Fiona, from Lytchett Matravers, also scored in the top five in the country for English.

It was a similar story at St Edwards' School in Oakdale with students achieving a 98 per cent pass rate.

Top individual performers were Megan Atkin, who gained three A grades at A-Level and one A and one B at AS, and Debbie Griffin gained two A grades and one B at A-Level and one A at As.

Brockenhurst College achieved a record 96 per cent pass rate, with two thirds of those at grade C or above and 26 students gaining three or more A grades including Isabel Forkin, Elizabeth Dunn and Chloe Whittle from Poole and Natalie Conroy, Stephen Chalk and Donna Varley from Christchurch.

Principal Michael Snell said: "These results are again outstanding with a rise in both pass rate and, more importantly, high grade passes. I congratulate staff, students and parents on what they have achieved."

Sixth-formers at Queen Elizabeth's School Wimborne shrieked with joy as they surpassed expectations with 96 per cent of passes. Carina Price achieved four A grades.

Headteacher Anbdy Puttock said he was very proud.

"This comes as the culmination of five years' hard graft by staff and students and they fully deserve today's celebrations," he said..

"I am just as ecstatic for the students achieving their potential with E grade passes as for those with top grades."

Ferndown Upper students also excelled themselves with 130 of them achieving 99.1 per cent of passes, 64 per cent of which were in the top three grades .

Headteacher Alex Wills said: "I think the teachers and students deserve the utmost commendation for all their hard work."

Mr Wills said he was equally proud of the students taking vocational qualifications - their pass rate was in the high 90s.