Students from BSix celebrated their A-level and AS results yesterday with improved grades for the embattled college.

BSix Sixth Form College has seen many changes since May last year when its principle was replaced by Kevin Watson, the college's director of learning, due to financial issues and a dire Ofsted report.

Yesterday's A-level results show how far the college has come. Grades were up 4 per cent this year and AS level results improved significantly by 22pc.

BSix student Andrea Sanchez was happy after achieving As in economics and AS Spanish and Bs in business and maths.

"I came here for holidays and I talked to my mum's friend and decided to move [country] because it's better to study English in a place where you have to speak it.

"In Spain you can't speak it that much - it's different," She said.

Andrea only came to study in Clapton two years ago and said moving on her own had been difficult.

She told the Gazette: "I have no parents here, no family at all, but my previous high school was bi-lingual so I did all of my subjects in English."

She didn't think that she was going to get the grades she got but is now excited to start university.

Nodi Shadia got an As in chemistry, maths and AS Italian and a B in Biology.

She wants to study medicine and has applied to St Georges, University of London.

"I really like that there's so much to learn in terms of science but also the aspect of caring for other people," she said of studying medicine. "There are always new innovations in medicine so I really like the idea of having new things to study and new things to do."

Nodi moved to England three years ago from Italy.

"It was a bit difficult because I didn't know the educational system of the UK which is very different to Italy's. I didn't know what GCSE's were and I didn't know what A-levels were." she said.

BSix prides itself on supporting students from abroad as well as those who may struggle to get accepted in to sixth forms elsewhere.

Principal Kevin Watson told the Gazette: "We are a good egg, even if our results haven't always been spectacularly good we are doing a lot of social good. I want to be greedy now. I want to do the social good and also get excellent results which is why today is a big step forward.

"The college is going from the third division back into the premier league as it were, getting back to a respectable position in the landscape of Hackney."