Everyone at Bermuda High School (BHS) for Girls is celebrating after its first ever International Baccalaureate students passed the exam with flying colours.

The 11 students were the first on the Island to begin the two-year IB programme in September, 2001, but their pass grades last weekend have made the qualification a 100 percent success.

Headteacher Roy Napier said he had taught the IB programme at a school in Canada and said it was unusual to have all students complete the course, let alone pass it.

He said: "We had 11 students in our graduating class doing the IB and we had a 100 percent success rate.

"Every student got the IB diploma, which is the gold standard in education.

"Very few schools actually enter all of their students for the diploma, but we actually had 100 percent who took it and passed it, which is something great.''

The IB programme was launched at BHS two years ago. A world-renowned pre-university examination, it consists of six subjects, including math, English, a foreign language, social science, experimental science and the arts.

The programme content is diverse and global, and is designed to engage the students in more critical thinking.

The students can pick up a total of 42 marks in the final exam, but they also have to complete work in community service, creativity and action in order to pass.

Star student Natasha Pedro-Petty, 19, of Bailey's Bay, scored an impressive 36 points out of a possible 42 and has been accepted into the prestigious McGill University in Quebec, Canada, this September.

Still excited about her grade, she said: "The IB programme was difficult. It was more the quantity of work than anything else. The quality of work was hard, but it was more the amount and the short period of time we had to do it in.

"We had to have a lot of discipline in order to complete the work. We had homework every night and you knew you had to do it or you would get behind. We had to learn to allocate our time properly."

But the young student, who is planning to pursue further studies in psychology and political science, said she also became much more experienced in essay writing.

IB co-ordinator at the school Kate Ross said each of her 11 students had been accepted into their first choice universities, including Dalhousie, York and Guelph in Canada, Oxford Brookes University in the UK, and West of England University.

Nine students at the school are set to sit the IB diploma next year, and a further 26 are to begin the programme in September.

The students who have received their diploma this year are; Anneli Christiansson, Keishunda Curtis, Brooke-Ann Dawson, LaKai Dill, Melanie Hitchcock, Michelle Smith, Rachel York, Cameron Hollis, Melissa Lawley, Natasha Pedro-Petty, Kerry Potts, Karla Reid and Toyra Woolridge.