STUDENTS at St Albans School have recorded the best A-level results in the school’s history this year.

Nearly a quarter of all grades were at A* and 72.2 per cent of all results were either A* or A.

Exceptional performances included Simon Phillips, of the Uplands, Harpenden, who achieved three A* grades and will be going to St Hilda’s College, Oxford, to read medicine.

Nick Butler, of Battlefield Road, St Albans, achieved three A* and an A to confirm his place at Jesus College, Cambridge.

Headmaster Andrew Grant said: “With university fees set to triple next year, almost no one taking up gap years nationally and with large numbers of last year’s gap year students swelling the number of those reapplying, 2011 has been the crunch year and most stressful and competitive ever for A-level students.

“Our sixth formers have risen to the challenge magnificently, showing what can be achieved by the right mixture of hard work and talent.

“They can be proud of their achievements, as we all are of them and I’m sure they will go on to great success at university.”