THE Grange School in Hartford was full of high achievers - including actor Philip Frank - at this year's prize-giving evening.

The Heartbeat and Darling Buds of May star was guest speaker for the annual event on Monday, which paid tribute to a whole host of academic, sporting and arts achievements over the past year.

Although the school's latest A-Level results were slightly down on last year's all-time record, head teacher Jenny Stephen praised the high performances of individual pupils.

She said: "We will have better years in terms of raw results; I doubt we shall have better years in terms of each individual pupil rising to and meeting their potential.

"GCSEs were up on last year and I have nothing but praise for last year's lower sixth who coped remarkably well with the new AS-Levels."

Despite the fact that the school is one of the most successful in the region, Mrs Stephen told parents, pupils and staff that the next step is to make it one of the most exciting.

"We have proved we can get the results," she said. "Now we must work to make sure that our pupils leave excited by learning, passionate about their subjects, full of intellectual curiosity and never satisfied with what they know, always wanting to know more."

The event proved to be even more of a special occasion for students Andrea Taylor, William Starkey and James Parker, who not only gained straight A grades in their A-Levels this year, but also achieved their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards, which were presented at the ceremony prior to going to St James' Palace in London.