A DARLINGTON college has celebrated the outstanding examination successes of its students at a ceremony attended by parents, governors, sponsors and education authority representatives.

Guest of honour at Carmel RC Technology College's awards was Father Michael McKenna, a former member of St Mary's Boys' Grammar, which later made way for the school. Fr McKenna is now parish priest of St Aidan's, in Ashington, Northumberland.

He presented certificates and prizes to pupils for GCSE, A-level, sports leaders and GNVQ awards.

More than 58 per cent of year 11 pupils achieved five or more A* to C grades at GCSE, with an overall A-level pass rate of 92 per cent.

Special prizes went to: Nicholas Chapman, Claire Kilgour, Claire McGovern and Danielle Miller (Dressers prize for best GCSE results), Jennifer Foster (Tees Valley in Business Technology prize), Jonathan Haigh (Almit Biology Prize), Katherine Ryder (Almit Chemistry Prize and James Corr Prize for best A-level results), Philip Innes (Almit Physics Prize), Christopher Surma (Barclays Bank Mathematics Prize), David Turpie (NTL Prize for ITC), Nicola Burt (Mayor's Linguistic Prize), Catherine Bleasdale (Religious Education Prize), Catherine Leafe (Geography Prize), Amanda Duggan (History Prize), Claire Fotheringham (John Caden Cup for outstanding contribution to the college).