A GIFTED pupil at Bancroft's School has seen off stiff competition from hundreds of thousands of other youngsters to be named the UK's top English student of the year.

Ayako Henson landed the prestigious title after coming among the eight highest scoring students in the country in this year's English GCSE exams - and then winning a hard-fought writing contest between the group.

The teenager will now go on to compete for the prize of overall Student of the Year at a glittering awards ceremony in December.

She said: "I thought that I had tried my best, but I certainly never expected to do this well.

"I was asked to write a piece justifying why I should be named as the top candidate - I thought this was a very difficult thing to do without sounding arrogant, so I took a deliberately ironic stance in my writing.

"I was very surprised to be recognised in this way - my parents are probably more excited about it than I am."

Bancroft's spokeswoman Karen Rogers said: "Ayako’s career plans are far removed from the world of literature.

"She is currently studying Geography, Economics and Double Maths at AS level, as well as Japanese outside of school, and hopes to go on to study Geography at university."