GCSE results in Powys have bucked the trend with the county reporting significant improvements in the top grades.

Powys passes at the very top A star and A grades stand at 20.5 per cent, compared to 19.2 across Wales.

The county council says the top A grade results and the A star to C pass rates represent the best results in Powys in recent years and maintain the strong performance of the county’s schools.

The county’s A star to C pass rate is 70.1 per cent, a near three per cent improvement on last year’s figure. The A star to C pass rate across Wales is 66 per cent, the same as last year.

Among those celebrating at schools across Brecon and Radnorshire this morning were pals Maisie Thomas, Harri Hughes and Theo Brotherton-Ratcliffe (pictured) at Gwernyfed High School in Three Cocks.

Harri gained four A stars and four A grades while Maisie collected two A stars, seven A’s and one B with Theo collected four A stars and four A's.

At Crickhowell High School Hannah Lindoewood topped the class with an a-mazing 11 A star grades and two A’s. Hannah is pictured, first left on the front row, with other top performers, pictured anti clockwise Issie Moir, Henry Taylor and back row Jacob Needle, Megan Rowland and Sibiyah Bevan.

In Presteigne the GCSE results marked an amazing turnaround in performance at John Beddoes since the secondary became a campus of Newtown High School.

The 74 per cent of pupils who gained the level two inclusive threshold represented a 95 per cent increase in pupils gaining the benchmark. When the school, which had been in special measures, was first taken over by Newtown, in 2013, just 38 per cent of pupils had achieved the important standard.

Pictured at John Beddoes are, from left Joe Roberts who gained four A’s, Rosie Emerson who gained four A’s and Holly Price who had three A stars, five A’s and a B. All three were very happy with their results.

At Brecon’s independent school, Christ College Aisling Tarpey, of Cradoc gained nine A stars and two A’s. Aisling, far right, is pictured with Julia Copp, from Brecon, and Milo Welch, from Glasbury, who gained eight A stars, two A’s and one B between them.

Boarders Amy Baker and Alice Lilley also gained a fine crop of grades, with 10 A stars, nine As and a B between them, while Catie Masters, Amy Houghton and Maya Lewis were also among the top performers at Christ College.

The Welsh A star to C pass rate is ahead of only Yorkshire (65.3 per cent) and the East Midlands (65.9 per cent) of the nine English regions.

The A star to C pass rate in England is 67 per cent, though experts are cautioning against direct comparisons between Wales and England due to increasing differences in GCSE exams taken in the two countries.

The overall pass rate of grades A star to G in Powys is 99 per cent, a 0.2 per cent increase on 2014. The pass rate remains significantly higher than in both Wales and England.

Cllr Arwel Jones, the cabinet member for education, said: "Our warm congratulations go to all pupils for achieving such excellent results which demonstrate their great commitment and hard work.

"This is made possible by the support they receive from dedicated teaching and support staff in all our schools and also from their families."

The Powys results are based on exams taken with the WJEC exam board but little change is expected in the overall figures when results from other boards are added as approximately 90 per cent of examination entries in Powys are with the Welsh board.