Thousands of students in Sittingbourne will be celebrating or commiserating with their peers as they pick up their GCSE results this morning.

We bring you news from the town's five secondary schools as the grades are announced.

Sittingbourne Community College has announced significant improvements in its Key Stage 4 results this year.

Officials said Year 11 students have demonstrated raised levels of attainment in key core subject areas as well as elevating the outcomes for a wide range of subjects across the curriculum.

Examinations in 19 GCSE subject areas were complemented by five subjects taken at BTEC Level 2.

Headline figures in GCSE core subjects saw passes at A*-C grade in English rise to 64%, with mathematics keeping pace with a 60% pass rate.

Students taking the Additional Science GCSE achieved 71% A*-C grades.

The newly introduced GCSE in Citizenship had a 100% pass rate, along with Dance and PE with 94% and 85% respectively.

Head teacher Fiona Trigwell said: “Results across the board have been amazing.

“They are the product of an enormous effort by students and staff during the last year to boost progress made in lessons with a wide range of additional interventions and personalised support.

“These initiatives focused on identifying each student’s individual needs and aspirations.”

Sittingbourne Community College is also one of the first to adopt the Progress 8 measure, which will be compulsory for all schools next year.

It moves away from five A-C including English and maths as a means of measuring how schools perform and instead focuses on how all students make progress from their secondary starting points at the end of primary school.

It also focuses on a broader range of subjects.

Mrs Trigwell said C grades were not a fair benchmark for all students – saying some struggle to achieve that and some should be exceeding it massively.

She added many students obtained a clutch of A* and A grades to raise their overall grade profile as they look towards further education opportunities.

Many are expected to do so within the Swale Academies Trust’s new joint Sixth Form provision, working alongside Westlands School and the newly-extended Swale Skills Centre.

It aims to ensure students can benefit from a wider range of courses and specialised teaching across the full range of academic and vocational disciplines.

Borden Grammar School achieved its best GCSE results for more than five years.

A total of 107 students sat 1,116 GCSE exams in 21 GCSEs, with the school achieving a 100% pass rate.

Ninety-four percent of these were at A*-C grades and 38% were at A-A*.

It represents an 8% improvement in A-A* passes (up to 38.4% from 30%) and the percentage of students gaining five A*-C inc.

English and Maths has increased to 94.4% (up from 91%). In addition 65% of students secured the English Baccalaureate (EBAcc) up from 60% in 2014.

Head teacher Jonathan Hopkins said: “A record number of students (43%) secured five or more A-A* grades and the school achieved the highest proportion of A-A* grades for over five years.

“Other notable successes included the improvement shown in the number of students gaining five or more A*-C grades including English and maths.

“Furthermore, Borden's Year 11 have achieved the best EBAcc results in the school's history.

“Overall, I am delighted that all of the hard work put in by the boys, accompanied by outstanding support from parents and the wholehearted commitment from staff has secured such a great set of results for Borden's students."

Twenty-one boys secured eight or more A-A* grades.

Stand out performers were: Michael Hezekiah who gained 11 A* grades and Craig Clark, Scott Jamieson, Charlie Johnson and Ross Nixon who all gained at least 10 A-A* grades.

Fulston Manor School is celebrating another year of examination success at GCSE.

In all 180 students sat 1,687 exams across 30 subjects. Of those 108 got A*-A grades, 500 A*-B , and 1,110 A*-C.

While 51% (92) of students achieved five A*-C, which includes English and maths, 97% (174) were awarded five A*-E.

Whilst the headline figure is 2% below last year’s record breaking percentages, head teacher Alan Brookes says the results once again indicate the high quality of education within the school.

He said: “With all the changes currently taking place to the curriculum and to the examination system it is encouraging to see so many students doing so well.

"Following on from last week’s outstanding A-Level results I am proud of the contributions made by everyone involved in this encouraging picture.”

Those who achieved particularly notable academic success are as follows:

Julija Dmitrijeva - A* in mathematics; As in art, business studies, French, computing.

Xena McLane - A* in geography and biology; As in German, mathematics, chemistry, product design.

Rosie Parr - A* in religious studies; As in geography, mathematics, additional science, textiles, business studies.

Dylan Coulter - As in English literature, mathematics, religious studies, biology.

Bethan Foot - A* in art, graphic product; As in mathematics and history.

Chloe Higgins - A* in art; As in English literature, religious studies and health and social care.

Bethany-Kiera Coulter- As in catering, PE and additional science.

Dana Harvey - As in health and social care, English literature and citizenship.

Chloe Hubbard - A* in religious studies; As in citizenship and history.

Chloe Hyland - As in English language, religious studies and health and social care.

Harry Martin - As in biology, mathematics and geography.

Isabella Turnland - A* in art; As in business studies and history.

Courtney Wicks - As in mathematics, chemistry and biology.

Orianna Williams - A* in geography; As in history and English literature.

It was another excellent set of results from the girls at Highsted Grammar school, with 100% of pupils achieving five A*-C grades.

Nearly 50% of the grades in full course GCSE subjects were also A* or As.

A total of 18 youngsters at the school achieved more than 10 A* or A grades in all their exams - more than double the figure recorded last year.

Morgan Steigmann, 16, came back with the school's best exam results after getting an outstanding 11 A* and an A* in one short course subject.

Other high achievers were Emily Hall and Bethany Johnson (nine A* grades and two A grades, one short course A grade).

Assistant head teacher, Daniel Quinn, said: "The class of 2015 have much to be pleased about, we are tremendously proud of our girls and delighted with the results that they achieved.

"The strength of the girls' results will help to give them a real competitive edge in their futures."

The number of five A*-C GCSE grades, including English and maths, achieved by Westlands School students is up 16% on last year’s figures.

In all 287 students sat 2,659 exams across 38 subjects.

Of those 169 students (59%) obtained five A*-C grades including English and maths, 78% of the youngsters achieved the government targets set for English, and 76% in maths, which the school says is significantly higher than the national average.

Overall a total of 126 exams were marked A*-A, 531 A*-B grades and 1,342 A*-C.

Head teacher Simon Cox said: “With constant changes in how pupils are measured over the last couple of years it is almost impossible to predict and compare results.

"However, it is very clear that Westlands School has an outstanding set of results for 2015.

"English and maths results continue to be strong and science results have improved dramatically.

"When Ofsted publish the performance tables later in the year I suspect that the progress pupils have made at Westlands will place the school as one of the highest performing schools in the county. Well done to a fantastic year group.”

Those who did particularly well are as follows:

Lois Andrews - A* in maths; As in science core, science additional, English, statistics and textiles.

Charlie Manuell - A* in art; As in maths, geography, science core, science additional, Spanish and statistics.

Kim Abawag - As in maths, English literature, science core, science additional, psychology and statistics.

Rachel Benee - A* in science additional, A in English, maths and science core.

Daniel Chapman - A* in science additional, A in ICT, maths, geography, science core, statistics and engineering.

Ryan Gallop - A* in maths, statistics, A in science additional, science core and engineering.