GCSE pupils are expected to top the tables once again this year as thousands of teenagers collect their exam results today.

Headteachers in Sussex were confident of good and, in some cases, their best ever, results as pupils flocked to schools to find out how they have done this morning.

Last year the national pass rate was 97.6 per cent, with 53.7 per cent of pupils gaining five A* to C grades. But many heads in Sussex were convinced their pupils would do better.

Ann Greatorex, headteacher of Brighton and Hove High School for Girls in Montpelier Road, said: "We are expecting 100 per cent of students to achieve five A* to C grades.

"I am sure the girls will be delighted when they come to collect their individual results tomorrow."

Andy Schofield, headteacher of Varndean School in Balfour Road, Brighton, said he hoped pupils would break through the 70 per cent barrier for the number gaining five A* to C grades.

He said: "That is what we are aiming for and I am confident we will achieve it."

Other schools were expecting dramatic improvements in results.

East Brighton College of Media Arts (Comart) in Wilson Avenue is expecting to double or even triple last year's results when 13 per cent of pupils gained five A* to C grades.

This will be the final set of results for the school as it closed at the end of the summer term because of falling pupil numbers.

Executive headteacher Mark Whitby said: "We are confident the results will be much better than in previous years - that is certain.

"We are at least going to double our results on last year and that in itself will be tremendous."

At St Paul's Catholic College, which relocated from Haywards Heath to Burgess Hill last year, headteacher John Flower was expecting the number of pupils gaining five A* to C grades to rise from 66 per cent last year to 85 per cent.

He said: "We are expecting our best ever results. They look like they will be way ahead of anything we have achieved before.

"The students have been excellent as have the teachers and I am very much looking forward to the day."