Three sets of twins achieve 30 'A' grade Highers - BBC News
Joseph, Michael, Vivien, Emma, Niamh and Roisin celebrate after achieving 30 top grade Highers.
The six St Ninian's pupils achieved 30 top marks between them - (From left) Joseph and Michael Lowrie; Vivien and Emma McAinsh and Niamh and Roisin Kelly

Three sets of twins from the same school have achieved straight A grades in their Highers.

Emma and Vivien McAinsh, 17, Joseph and Michael Lowrie, 17, and Niamh and Roisin Kelly, 16, all attend St Ninian's in East Renfrewshire.

Together they notched up 30 top marks, with sibling rivalry playing a key role in their success, they admitted.

They received their results along with thousands of other candidates at 08:00 on Tuesday by text message.

Roisin Kelly said she was on tenterhooks about her performance after her sister's results arrived ahead of hers.

She said: "I didn't get my message until much later in the day, so it made it much more nerve-racking and my sister was reassuring me that I would have got the same as her.

"When I eventually got the results, I was just so relieved."

Emma McAnish added: "We both got the text at the same time, but I was too scared to open mine. Vivien opened hers first and then ran through to my room, and once I had looked at my results we started celebrating.

"We were jumping up and down and our little sisters and parents came in to join us."

Roisin conceded that her success was in some part down to her rivalry with sister Niamh. She said: "I would not have worked as hard if she (Niamh) hadn't forced me to, so it actually came in handy."

Emma McAnish said: "I think it motivated us both to work harder."

Each of the pupils said they wanted to stay in education

All the pupils said they wanted to carry on in education, with the McAinsh twins hoping for a future in dentistry.

Joseph said: "I was hoping for five A's to get into medicine, but whatever I had got I would have been happy with because I had worked as hard as I could for the exams."

Michael added: "We didn't know what each other had got so it was a bit nervous in our house, so we were delighted to have got the results."