The overall statistics are yet to come in but the borough is full of smiling teenagers with big plans for the future as they collect their GCSE results.

Chelsea Chu, 16, is one of the handful of pupils at Northumberland Park who have won sixth form scholarships to private schools after acing the scholarship exams.

She will start A-levels in art, maths, physics and economics at Bedales School in September.

She said: “My first reaction was ‘why did I get a D in art’ but otherwise I’m really happy. I also wasn’t expecting a B in French.

High-achieving Nazifa Uddin, who gained three A*s, six As, and two Bs, will start A-levels in biology, chemistry, economics and English, and hopes to read medicine at Oxford or Cambridge.

Nara Abdullahi, who moved to London from Kenya aged 14, said she is “delighted” with her string of A*s, As and Bs.

She said: “I lived in London when I was very small, but then moved to Kenya, and then back to London when I was 14. I’ve really loved my time at school here, it’s so friendly and welcoming and everyone has been so nice.”

Over at Thomas More Catholic School, David Anosike was “ecstatic” with his As and Bs, and looked forward to staying on at the school’s sixth form to study chemistry, history and maths.

He said: “I’d like to do petroleum geology at university, which is something we’ve studied a bit in science already, with types of rocks and how to extract various elements. I love it!”

Carl Bile, who received three A*s, seven As and three Bs, hopes he is still on course to fulfil his dream of becoming a doctor. He said: “I’m feeling really good. I put a lot of hard work into getting these results, and you always reap what you sow."

His classmate Daniela Concha-Murillo was surprised by her A* in Spanish, but said she was hoping she would get more As overall.

She said: “I wanted to get As in science, but I’m going to study geography, economics, maths and sociology for A-level and hopefully marketing or something to do with business at university.”