A group of students from a city school have been presented with their GCSE certificates at a special ceremony in front of proud teachers and fellow pupils.
The pupils from Royal School for the Deaf Derby, in Ashbourne Road, achieved some of the school’s best ever GCSE results this summer.
The teenagers were presented with their certificates by governor Alison Jones and teacher Marie Watson, who was recently received the top award for Excellence in Special Needs Education.
The students’ achievements are even more impressive because they must sit their exams in English, which is their second language, while British Sign Language is their first.
Head teacher of the Ashbourne Road school, Helen Shepherd, said: “We are immensely proud of our students who achieved a really splendid set of results this year.
“It is considerably harder for our students to sit written exams because the grammatical rules in sign language are very different to those used in English. This means deaf and non-verbal children can find it difficult to construct well-formed written sentences.
“It is extremely encouraging for our other pupils to celebrate these successes, so they can see how their hard work will pay off.”
