This is what Wycombe High School head teacher Sharon Cromie had to say about the latest cohort of A-level students who got their much-awaited results today.

This is the second year exams have had to be cancelled due to Covid, with hundreds of thousands of students across the UK given grades determined by teachers and pupils only assessed on what they have been taught during the pandemic.

Sixth formers faced major disruption to their education due to the coronavirus pandemic and having to learn at home due to lockdowns.

Their A-level grades were assessed by teachers following the cancellation of formal exams again.

Ms Cromie waxed lyrical about Wycombe High School students and their results, especially with the added pressures of the pandemic, saying: “The results are absolutely amazing and I’m hugely proud of every single student.

“It’s been an extraordinarily tough time – the last 17 months have been full of challenges and they have persevered, have understood the stakes are high, understood the situation and gave it their absolute best.”

Students at the school also shared their results and future plans with Ms Cromie virtually.

Outgoing Head Girl Rebecca Van Eeden said: “I was staring at my phone for about half an hour before I got the email. I opened it up and got my results and I’m so happy, really, really excited.

“In years past people have got it in a letter but it was just as exciting.”

Miss Van Eeden got three A*s in English, politics and geography, and is going to study geography at the University of Exeter.

Anna Ricketts, from Marlow, who got two A*s in music and English, and an A in Spanish, said: “I quite enjoyed opening my results at home because I was with my cats and family, and if things didn’t go well, I was surrounded by people that I love, so that was nice.

“There was a lot of screaming from everyone, it was quite loud. My cats were pretty shocked. It was a happy moment.”

She is planning to study music at the University of Birmingham.

Megan Mansfield-Jones, from Marlow Bottom, who got A*s in maths and further maths, and As in music and physics, said: “It was just me and my mum, we were sat on my bed and the email came through and it was quite chill.

“I was quite nervous. My mum cried, she always cries.”

She will go on to study maths at University of Warwick.

And Vianne Alhayderi, who is set to study law and Spanish law at Oxford University, said she celebrated with her parents and brother.

She said: “When we first got the email I couldn’t believe it. There were definitely a few tears involved. We were all celebrating.”

She got A*s in maths, French and Spanish, and an A in politics.

Ms Cromie also spoke to the Bucks Free Press about the impact of the pandemic on schools and school leaders, saying: “When Wycombe High School, along with all the other schools, closed on March 20, 2020, during the first lockdown, none of us anticipated that 17, 18 months on we would still be dealing with the impact of that situation.

“We had to move immediately to an online system of learning. We were fortunate enough that we had the ability to use a virtual platform for many years, but the students embraced that and kept working through.”

She also told the BFP she “could not be more proud” of the students, saying they had “shown absolute determination and grit”.

She said: “They have persevered, they have kept their head down and they have shown absolute determination and grit.

“They understood very early on that they needed to keep going and they looked beyond the moment and beyond this pandemic, and they remained focused on their futures.

“So actually, I don’t know that it’s so much pride or absolute admiration for them. They are a generation like no other.”

Ms Cromie also said school leaders and staff had been “very driven by a moral imperative” to help the students “be their best”.

She added: “School leaders and staff have found the pandemic quite a challenge.

“It’s been constant change, it has been huge volumes of information to read and absorb, and then to implement, but I think we’ve been very driven by the moral imperative.

“We put the students at the very heart and centre of what we do, so we wanted to do our best to make sure our students could be their best.

“I think we can all stand very tall and very proud today and congratulate these young people on what they have achieved.”