St Mary’s Catholic College in Wallasey said it had seen “a significant improvement” in its grades while St John Plessington Catholic College said 91% of its students were successful in securing their first choice university course, compared to 82% nationally. South Wirral High School in Eastham said their results were “outstanding.”

At Catholic grammar school for boys St Anselm’s College in Prenton, Serena Cubbin, headteacher, said 20% of their students got straight A*s and As, adding: “I think that is pretty phenomenal, the grades and the university places. It’s been a record breaking year this year.”

One of those pupils, Alexander McKay, who has also played rugby nationally, is off to do politics and international relations after getting an A* in politics and two As in business and history. He said: “The politics is a big shock to me. I didn’t think it was in my reach but it clearly was.”

The youngest of several brothers to go to St Anselm’s, he said: “I think I have done the best out of all of them. I feel I am at the top of the pecking order. I phoned them all up and gloated to all of them. I was really nervous. I was confident but I was really nervous.”

Twins Matthew and Michael Joinson are both off to Liverpool to do bioveterinary science and engineering respectively. Michael said: “We helped each other as much as we could” while Matthew said both of them going to Liverpool was a coincidence, adding: “It’s the best for me and it just happened that Liverpool was the best for both of us.”

Serena Cubbin, headteacher at the school, said: “As it’s my first year as head teacher, it’s been really emotional because I have been with them the whole way through since year seven and coming to the end of that journey. They were brilliant just inside school and outside school.

“I look most forward to them coming back. We have got a brilliant alumni set up. We invite one of them back to talk about university and the courses they are doing.

“Some of them are now doing courses they hadn’t even heard of. Just to know that the top universities are open for them wherever you are and wherever you come from, especially in somewhere like Birkenhead.”

At Ofsted “outstanding” Birkenhead Sixth Form College, friends Sophie Pegoraro is off to The University of Liverpool to study law before going into psychology after getting a distinction star, an A and a B while Martha Raven is off to study art and psychology at Reading after getting an A*, an A, and a B.

Martha said: “I am a bit shocked, not exactly what I thought.” She said she was getting Cs and Bs in the final term but ended up with an A* in psychology.

Sophia told the LDRS: “It just shows that hard work pays off,” adding: “it’s been a rollercoaster of emotions. I was really happy with my work but sometimes I put myself down but I would say to everyone it’s worth it if you work hard.”

Billy Walsh is initially thought he hadn’t got into his first choice university but is off to study psychology at Liverpool John Moores. He said: “I am buzzing, when I saw the C, I thought maybe next year. I wasn’t expecting it, I thought it was definitely not going to happen.”

Mike Kilbride MBE, the principal at the college, said: “We’ve done remarkably well, beyond remarkable. Last year, our performance was described by independent analysts as remarkable and we’ve actually improved on that. When I say we’ve improved upon that, the students have improved upon that.

“There’s lot of fantastic individual stories there. 92% of our students are getting to their first choice university. More of our students than ever are going to the top universities.”