Afternoon tea with Lord Mayor of Portsmouth celebrates A-level achievements

The pupils, and their families, along with the principals of colleges in Portsmouth, spent yesterday afternoon celebrating their good grades with the leader of Portsmouth City Council Donna Jones and the Lord Mayor David Fuller.

The afternoon tea event at Portsmouth Guildhall also gave them the chance to say where they were heading now they have finished their A-levels.

Many of them are heading to university while some are going on to be apprentices.

The Lord Mayor praised the afternoon and said he hopes it will become an annual event.

‘It was really inspirational listening to some of their stories,’ Cllr Fuller said.

‘They all worked so hard and did really well. It was nice to celebrate that.

‘This is the first time we have held something like this but I hope it will become an annual event. It was an honour to have them.

‘They really seemed to enjoy themselves as well and the feedback we had from the students was good.’

He added: ‘It was nice that we could say thanks from everyone in the city and congratulate them on their hard work.’

Students were delighted with their results this year despite the Portsmouth area seeing a dip in overall pass rates.

The city was very close to the national picture – with 98.1 per cent of students achieving A* to E, while the proportion of A* and As was 25.8 per cent – down by 0.1 on last year.

But many of the students still managed to bag themselves their first choice of university with others moving onto apprenticeships.

Highbury College, in Cosham, and its chief executive Stella Mbubaegbu tweeted its students who attended the event telling them well done for their grades.