BLACKBURN – Students of a British Muslim girls’ school in Blackburn have succeeded in breaking the national average for top grades in the UK, 5 Pillars reported on August 20.

“Our results are really exceptional. We’d like to thank our students and staff for their phenomenal efforts and devotion throughout last year,” Asia Ali, Head of Sixth Form at Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School (TIGHS) expressed.

The Islamic school achieved its best ever results with 99% of A Levels completed at A*- C grades. Over half of the school’s pupils (58%) have achieved the top A*- A grades in their A Levels.

The national British average for the top grades was 26.4% and the proportion gaining A* to C was 78.4%.

TIGHS’ Sixth Form has over 160 students completing a range of A Level and vocational courses.

One of the students, Ayah Shah, achieved three A*s – in Biology, Chemistry, and Arabic – as well as an A grade in Mathematics. She is going on to study Medicine at the University of Manchester.

Another pupil, Aasia Bibi Majid, achieved an A* in Religious Studies and A grades in Literature and Psychology. She will study Law at the University of Manchester.

Aasia said, “I feel incredibly blessed to have studied at Tauheedul. I owe everything to my teachers and parents.”

The Muslim school’s results aren’t a surprise because four years ago Ofsted evaluated the TIGHS Sixth Form of 2014 as “outstanding.” Inspectors reported that students in the Sixth Form “make rapid progress and impressive gains in their knowledge and understanding.”

For years, independent Islamic schools have remained at the top of UK GCSE results, setting an example for faith-based schools as successful, highly-achieving and inspiring educational institutes in Britain.

The Muslim schools’ overall average of students who received 5 or more A*- C grade GCSEs, including English & Maths, exceeded the national average with 9 schools achieving a 100% success rate – only 55 schools achieved the 100% landmark in the whole of the UK.

Islam is the second largest religion in the UK with results from the national Census 2011 giving the UK Muslim population in 2011 as 2,786,635, 4.4% of the total population.

In 2011 it was reported that the UK could have as many as 100,000 converts to Islam, of which 66% were women. Islam is the fastest growing religious confession in the UK and its adherents have the lowest average age out of all the major religious groups.