Local students buck national trend with increase in top grades

It has been another good year for GCSE performance with local schools seeing an increase in top grades despite a decline nationally.

The 2015 cohort at St Benedict’s produced an excellent crop of GCSE results. The percentage of A* grades at 23.2% was the second highest ever and the percentage of A*/A grades at 52.2% was up 3% on last year.

55 pupils achieved 6 or more A grades and 25 of these achieved 5 or more A* grades. There were some outstanding individual performances headed by Liam Carty-Howe, Marcin Scicinski and Rebecca Walker each with 11A* grades; Ben Ainslie and George Johnson with 10A*s; Matthew Carr, Ben Farmer and Alvin Lee with 9A*s; Milly Girton, Luca Lota, Ambrose MacFall with 8A*; Ieuan Beetham, Louis Delsol, Sarah Philip and Nicholas Sakkas with 7A*.

The average number of passes at C and above per candidate was 9.6, with an overall pass rate of 93.4%.

Headmaster Chris Cleugh commented: “These are very pleasing results. They represent a marked improvement on last year and are very close to the challenging targets we set ourselves last November. I congratulate all our pupils and thank the teachers who helped them achieve so well.”

St Augustine's Priory had a record breaking year with 25% of passes at A* and nearly a quarter of pupils achieving straight A*s or A. They did particularly well in science IGCSE where three quarters of the girls passed with A* or A grades.

Stand out performances included Aneae Rodriguez, Aliyah Ahmad & Simran Bal excelled with 20 A*s & 12 As between them and Rebecca Ball (9 A*s,3As), Monica Hanna (6 A*s, 4 As), and Claudia Bergin(6 A*s, 3 As). Other achievements of note were Anna Szyszko who achieved a 11 A*s and 2 As and Emma Loffhagen who achieved an 11 A*s.

St Augustine's girls show off their exam results

Sarah Raffray, Headteacher at St Augustine’s Priory says,“Last year our GCSE results were outstanding and ranked us best performing in Ealing; once again, our girls have attained record grades including in the more challenging IGCSE Science subjects as well as across the breadth of subjects, with the highest recurring mark across the entire cohort being A. As a small single sex girls’ school we know we are uniquely able to give our pupils tailored academic support combined with the tools for building resilience to challenge, as these results suggest. As always, these excellent achievements reflect the hard work of staff and pupils. There have been many outstanding individual achievements but evidence of progress of each girl and that she has achieved her very best across a wide breadth of subjects remains the most rewarding aspect.”

Elthorne Park High school students and staff are celebrating the third year in a row of record GCSE results with a best ever 74% of Year 11 students achieving 5+ A*-C grades including English and mathematics

The new Progress 8 measure showing students getting over half a grade higher in all subjects than their peers nationally.

The top performance was that of Emma Whitmey with 9A* and 4 A grades. In all 33 students achieved an average grade of A/A* and 57 out of 179 achieved 5 or more A*/A grades.

Headtacher Eliot Wong said, "These outstanding results top off an amazing year for the school. They confirm our recent Ofsted grading of good and are just reward for the efforts shown by my students and staff. As the fastest improving Ealing High school in the last 3 years we have shown what can be achieved through the good old-fashioned values of hard work, dedication and determination to succeed."

Ealing Independent College’s GCSE results have also equalled their best results ever with 83% of students achieving 5A*-C grades including English and Mathematics; 20% ahead of the national average. Principal, Dr Ian Moores, said, “Despite the national picture of fewer top grades at A-Level and GCSE, the College has produced outstanding results with more students than ever achieving A* grades. I am delighted for the students and grateful to the committed staff."

The improvement in top grades locally bucked the national trend which showed a fall. GCSE grades A* to C have risen slightly to 69%, but top A* and A grades have edged down. Nationally 6% of grades were at A*.

London was the best performing region in England with 72% achieving A* to C grades.

August 25, 2015