Triplets learnt yesterday they have scored a GCSE hat-trick - amassing 26 A* grades between them.

Alison, Helen and Katherine Prescott, from Durham City, were among thousands collecting their results.

But the continuing row over whether standards were rising fast enough in primary and secondary schools overshadowed scores of success stories.

Education Secretary Charles Clarke admitted that the Government would have failed if there was no "massive" boost to literacy rates in the next few years.

He was speaking after the overall GCSE pass rate dropped for the first time in a decade and the gap between the highest and lowest achievers widened.

But in the North-East, the triplet 16-year-olds notched up straight As in all 30 subjects. Alison and Helen achieved nine A* grades and one A grade, while Kate gained eight A*s and one A grade.

They even sat the same exams, apart from Helen, who chose to study German instead of textiles like her two sisters at Durham High School for Girls.

Alison said: "We weren't really in competition with each other. Most of the time it's good natured. But we were shocked when we got our results."

Other success stories included 15-year-old twins Irene and Laura Anderson, of Teesside High School, who gained A* in their classical Greek GCSEs after completing the syllabus in one year.

Harriet Rykens, of Kirklington, near Bedale, North Yorkshire, was also delighted after gaining ten GCSEs with grades A*-B.

The teenager is one of 30 pupils taking part in Channel 4's That'll Teach 'Em, where they have undergone the rigours of a 1950s education and sat real O-level papers.

Kaylee Davidson was also celebrating - 16 years after becoming Britain's first heart transplant baby. Kaylee, of Washington, Wearside, had the life or death surgery at the age of five months.

Yesterday she was overjoyed to get the results she needed to attend performing arts college.