THE cousin of Southport swimming star Fran Halsall was among GCSE students riding on the crest of a wave yesterday.

Laura Halsall, 16, was among five pupils at St Mary’s College in Crosby managing 10 A*s.

Her academic success is matched with talent in the pool as the teenager is a member of the Great Britain Catholic Schools swimming team.

She hopes to emulate her cousin Fran who earlier this month picked up a gold medal in the 100metres freestyle European Championships in Budapest.

Other successes included Wirral Grammar School for Boys’ pupil Sean Cavanagh who secured 13 A*s.

Elsewhere Joe Mansour, a pupil at Merchant Taylors’ in Crosby managed 11 A*s.

His achievement was matched by Rounak Poonawala and Alex Quirk from Calday Grange Grammar School in West Kirby.

Kieran Ryan, from Wallasey, was the highest-performing student at Birkenhead’s St Anselm’s College achieving 10A* grades.

Zhao Zhongbin was among students overcoming the language barrier to succeed.

The 16-year-old from Shanghai could not speak a word of English when he joined the Oldershaw school in Wallasey two years ago.

But yesterday he picked up nine GCSEs including a B in English literature and a C in English Language thanks to three extra English lessons a week.

Headteacher Steven Peach said: “What he’s achieved in such a short space of time is fantastic.”