Students at Hackney New School have endured a troubled year while preparing for their GCSEs, but there were excellent results on show today.

The entire board of trustees at the Kingsland Road school quit last month, sparking a "no notice" Ofsted inspection.

It came shortly after Charlotte Whelan was brought in as the fifth headteacher in two years from her post at the "outstanding" Forest Gate Community School in Newham.

She was meeting some of the youngsters for the first time as they collected their results this morning, and said the school was now in safe hands.

The Community Schools Trust is expected to take over from the Hackney New School Trust after the exodus of the board.

"That is all in motion," Ms Whelan told the Gazette. "All I can say is the school is undergoing a rapid period of improvement and we look forward to next year."

Despite all that, Nora Al Morhiby was delighted with her five 9s, five 8s and a 7 and has a conditional offer to attend Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Her goal is to become a dentist.

"I did better in the exams I was worried about," she said. "I thought I'd get 9s in sciences but think I overworked myself in them. I'm really happy - I still have to tell my parents!"

Gabriel Marshall was another who didn't let the school's troubles phase him.

The Clapton youngster said his results, including 9s in maths and chemistry, were about what he expected. He now hopes to attend Brampton College in Golders Green.

"I'm going to study maths, biology, chemistry and economics," he told the Gazette. "I want to go to Brampton because it had 41 students go to Oxbridge."

Asked how he plans to celebrate his results, Gabriel added: "I have no idea! I was not thinking about it, I was just thinking about my results."

Becky Martin was feeling a "mixture of emotions" after getting another set of excellent results. She will go off to study photography, history, maths and psychology at Malpeth in Tower Hamlets. But first, Nando's.