Hard work was definitely rewarded when students from Sir John Lawes School, who have spent the last few weeks of the summer trekking and carrying out charity work in Java, returned to the UK to pick up their GCSE exam results.

Rosie Pascal and Umar Saleem were amongst several year 11s who took part in the school’s recent World Challenge trip and were delighted to open their envelopes to discover excellent grades.

Rosie said: “World Challenge was the best thing I have ever done and I think that it has really changed me as a person. I set myself a tough target for my GCSEs and I’ve done even better than I imagined. Eight A*s and two As!”

Umar added: “World Challenge is an experience that will go uncompared for my entire life. You return a completely different person. It’s brilliant. And now I am also really pleased with my results and discover that I’ve passed French and am on the A level courses I wanted.”

Head of Year Christine Richardson said: ‘We are very proud of our all young people and the results they have achieved this year. They have worked very hard and been very supportive of each other as a group – they deserve every success.”