Students in Wembley say rising tuition fees will not put them off going to university as they received outstanding A-level results this morning.

Nervous teenagers arrived at Copland Community School in Cecil Avenue to open the brown envelopes containing the grades that could shape their future.

Anish Varsani, 18, was delighted when he found out that his A* in chemistry, A* in maths and A in economics was more than enough to get into University College London to study economics at degree level.

He said: “I’m really pleased with that – I thought I’d done much worse, but I’ve done much better than I expected.

“I was always going to go to university – obviously I’d rather pay a lot less but I still think it will be worth it in the end.”

The school’s 93 per cent pass rate, with 33 per cent A*-C, is part of a three-year trend of improvement in results after a troubled period which led to former headteacher Sir Alan Davies and four other former teachers being charged with fraud.

Telina Fernandes, 18, said she had also outperformed her expectations by getting an A* in sociology, A in biology and A in chemistry, and would be heading to Kings College to study dentistry.

She added: “I was expecting three As but I got an A* as well which is absolutely brilliant and I’m really happy with.

“I’ve been working really hard for the last two years to get this and now I feel like all the hard work has finally paid off – my dad has organised a big party for me tonight to celebrate.”

Headteacher Graeme Plunkett paid tribute to the work of students at the school, which Brent Council announced would be knocked down and rebuilt from scratch in May.

He said: “For me, today is always about the hard work of the students and their fantastic achievements, but I am really pleased.

“It’s a rising trend in results and it’s especially in the more academic subjects like biology, chemistry, maths and ones like that.

“And what I’ve really noticed is that there’s no evidence here of students not wanting to go to university, despite all the talk of people going on gap years or going straight into work because of the fee rises.

“Our students are absolutely determined to go to university and there’s no lack of ambition here.”