THIS week saw an end to an anxious wait for thousands of students as they found out their GCSE exam results.

Some turned up at their schools to get their results, while others obtained the news via the internet.

Twenty years ago exam results were not available online, so youngsters turned up at their schools in their droves, each of them eager to find out how they had done,

The date was August 27, 1998 when the air was full of the sound of joy and arm waving. Corridors and entrances in education establishments were full of youths hugging and celebrating their successes.

For many they cemented their places in the colleges they had hoped for, but for others their results were not quite as good as they had hoped, resulting in the need for a rapid rethink.

Nationally the number of pupils achieving A* to C grades rose by 0.3% to 54.7%, although the overall pass rate dropped by 0.8% to 97.7%.

These images show local youngsters getting their results at various schools in the area.