Mellow Lane students meet Joe Swash

MELLOW Lane School students had the opportunity to meet a soap star to celebrate their GCSE results success.

Five pupils met Joe Swash, who stars in the BBC 1 soap EastEnders, at the Peter Harris Planetarium in Greenwich, London on January 15.

Darran Davies, 16, Scott Walker, Kadra Aden, Manisha Vegad and Henna Kaura from the school in Hewens Road, Hayes, were chosen after the school made the best improvement on previous years' GCSE results in the borough.

The school has seen a 20 per cent increase in five A* to C grade passes in GCSEs with 55 per cent of students having achieved this last year from 35 per cent the year before.

Marion Lewis, headteacher at the school, said: "We were thrilled to be selected to represent Hillingdon, it was a tribute to the amount of work students and staff have done. The students who were chosen really represented this achievement, with both those who had achieved A* grades and those pupils who pushed themselves to get better grades.

"It's easy for people to look at league tables and criticise schools so it makes a nice change when the achievement of students are actually recognised."