TWO Darwen sixth form students are celebrating after it emerged their exam results were among the top 10 in the country.

Adam Fenton of Belgrave Road, and Katherine Midgley, of Bury Fold, both 16, sat the GCSE Art and Design: Fine Art exam earlier this summer at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Blackburn.

They achieved some of the highest overall marks out of 9,763 candidates.

Both students also achieved 10 A* grades in their GCSEs.

Adam said: “I was really surprised to hear the news but very pleased. I enjoyed doing the work and my family are proud.”

Adam submitted coursework on the themes of barriers, organic form and identity.

He made a bulb-shaped sculpture of willow and mesh, painted portraits of his family in oil, and made a self-portrait made from pieces of rubbish he got out of skip as well as completing three sketch books.

He said his inspirations were artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Rembrandt.

Katherine, a former pupil at Ashleigh Primary School, submitted work based on abstract and figurative painters such as Marcel Duchamp and Cy Twombly.

One piece of work she produced used an old blackboard to represent education, covered words in different languages, a canvas covering personal writing and a painting of a cone to represent barriers.

Head of Art at QEGS, Tim Birtwistle, said he was “thrilled and delighted” at the achievement of Adam and Katherine – and also of a third QEGS student, Lucy Southworth from Garstang, who also had high marks.

He said: “Having three students in the top 10 nationally must be quite a rare event.”