Headmaster Jonathan Webb congratulated students on how well they did after years of disrupted education: "You did supremely well - and if we go by the score of grades collected at levels A* A or B then you did better than any year group who has gone before. But records are there to be broken- and in fact that last paragraph I actually said to the class of 2022. You did just that and broke the record.
"A higher percentage of you than ever before secured your first choice of institution and the highest at some of the most competitive universities. Well done. So as you sit in lecture hall with a class of 100 spare a thought for the high quality individual teaching you received here.
"We hope you have enjoyed your first term of university, course of further education, gap year, world of work or travel - in short whatever you have elected and chosen to do since departing here in June. We hope it was the right decision and one which will take you where you want to go.
"It’s a genuine delight to see so many of you return to dear old RGS. We haven’t changed too much, as you can see, in this short time, but you may have changed a lot no doubt already.
"You are part of an extended community who share a common origin that can't be erased. You are Old Riponians, and just think, like the class of 1973 who came back earlier this year, may be you will come back in 2073 as the class of 2023 to marvel again at how little this hall has changed and hopefully reminisce about the good old days you spent here."