C'EST fantastique! Eight of the country's best French GCSE results were achieved by pupils from the York area.

Four of the successful students attend All Saints' RC School in York - appropriately enough a Language College.

Jessica Davies, of St Paul's Square, Nicholas Thorne, from Dunnington, Kirsten Scriven, from Barton-le-Willows, and Aisling Hodson, of Stockton Lane, took the AQA board's French exam, which had 163,527 candidates nationwide.

Delighted head teacher Bill Scriven said Jessica had also achieved a top mark in three other exams run by AQA - English Literature, English Language and German, while Nicholas got one in German. Jessica scooped A*s in all 11 GCSEs.

He praised the hard work of students and "quality teaching" of their teachers.

Three more of the country's best French marks were grabbed by Mount School students Rosemary Evans, Priscilla Hetherton and Sarah Scarth, with a similar success by Easingwold School pupil, Sophie Eleanor.

Mount School head Diana Gant said: "We are extremely pleased with these results. We have excellent staff who motivate the girls to do their best."

City of York Council said today that the city's students once again achieved higher results than the national average, with 57 per cent of pupils achieving five or more A*-C grades, compared with the national figure of 52.9 per cent in 2003*. Results at four of the city's 11 secondary schools had improved on those for 2003.

Five pages of GSCE results from York, North and East Yorkshire start on Page 14 today.

Updated: 10:34 Friday, August 27, 2004