A former King’s School ‘star pupil’ has been honoured for gaining the highest total marks of all the students who sat the EDUQAS Geography A level exams in 2022.

Lydia Gammon has received a Royal Geographical Society Excellence Award for her outstanding performance.

A spokesperson for The King’s School said they were ‘delighted’ at the news.

They said: “Lydia was an exceptionally gifted and dedicated student. As a school, and as a Geography department, we took great pleasure in witnessing Lydia develop into an incredibly well-rounded Geographer, who made a superb contribution to the Geography department but also to the school as a whole.

“She regularly aided us in the promotion of the subject at open evenings and was ever-present at the guest speaker slots that we have in the department. She had a real passion and aptitude for the subject, taking her interest beyond the classroom to her fieldwork on Chesil Beach and out onto Dartmoor where she led the schools Ten Tors team.

“Since leaving us she continued her love of investigating the world around her, travelling to New Zealand in the summer before taking up her place on a Medicine degree at Bristol University.

"We were immensely proud of Lydia. She really was a star pupil displaying great personality alongside all of the academic traits required to achieve the very top grades at A level. We are delighted by the news that she achieved such a high score in her Geography exams and wish her all the very best for the future.

"As a Geography department, we are particularly delighted by this news as it follows the awarding in 2017 of an RGS Excellence award to one of our GCSE students.”

The Society’s Excellence Awards recognise the students who achieve the highest marks in the GCSE, IGCSE, A Level, Pre-U and International Baccalaureate geography examinations each year.

Professor Joe Smith, Director of the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers), said: “Today’s young people have a keen interest in many key geographical issues, including climate change, and studying geography helps them to better understand the world’s people, places and environments, and how they are changing.

“The Society is delighted to recognise the outstanding success of these dedicated students. Our Excellence Awards reflect their hard work, the support of their geography teachers and parents, and the students’ curiosity about their world, which we hope they will carry with them into the future.”