No, it’s not Bollywood’s Salman Khan in a double role, but real-life identical twins Arnav and Aryan Kotwal who are celebrating after clocking up 13 grade 9s and seven A*s between them in their GCSEs.
Having achieved the highest grades possible under the new GCSE marking system, Arnav and Aryan who study at the Grammar School At Leeds (GSAL) now head into the sixth form where they will study identical A-levels in maths, further maths, chemistry and biology.
Aryan said: “We opened our results simultaneously this morning and were so surprised when we saw our grades.”
“It was super exciting,” said Arnav.
The twins’ classmate Vivaan Thopte also notched up the best possible grades in all his exams, with three A*s and seven 9s, and will study the same subjects at A-level.
Other top performers include Sasha Gill, Kiran Tulwa, Ruhi Pullan and Hassan Tahir, who achieved all A*, 9 and 8, broadly equivalent to a clean sweep of A*s under the previous grading system.
Also celebrating impressive results are Zara Hossain-Ibrahim, Bismah Hussain, Hannah Punnoose, Taskiya Rahman, Aneesh Varma and Aditi Zamvar, who passed all their exams with grades A/A* and 7 or above.
Half of all GCSE grades achieved at GSAL were the highest possible at A*/8 or above… an increase of 7 percentage points on last year’s results.
Nineteen students scooped 10 A*/8/9 in every subject, including four who secured the highest possible grades in every subject, with one student sweeping the board with 11 top grades.
More than a third of the cohort – 64 students – achieved 10 grades at A/7 or above.
As well as an increase in top grades from 43 per cent to 50 per cent, the school maintained 71 per cent passes at grades A/7 and 98 per cent of passes at C/4 or above.
Principal Sue Woodroofe said: “This is an outstanding set of results in a year when there has been much speculation about fewer pupils being able to achieve as highly as in previous years.
“I am delighted for our students who richly deserve this tremendous success. Some 26 per cent of the new GCSEs achieved are grade 9 – a stunning achievement against about 4 per cent nationally.
“This is the second year of the phasing in of reformed GCSEs with numerical values and this has, undoubtedly, created feelings of uncertainty and anxiety among young people. All we can ask of our children is what we should always be asking of them: simply, that they do their best.
“I could not be more proud of this year’s GCSE students and I am grateful to staff and parents whose support for, and encouragement of, the children has been first class.”
“This is the second year of the phasing in of reformed GCSEs with numerical values and this has, undoubtedly, created feelings of uncertainty and anxiety among young people. All we can ask of our children is what we should always be asking of them: simply, that they do their best.
“I could not be more proud of this year’s GCSE students and I am grateful to staff and parents whose support for, and encouragement of, the children has been first class.”
