Students from across the local area achieve 'outstanding' results

Maimuna of Chiswick School gets the top grades in her year

Students at Chiswick School are celebrating what their headteacher described as ‘outstanding results’ in this year new form GCSEs. 196 Grades at the school were achieved at either Grade 9/8/A*, of which 52 were Grade 9.

Maimuna achieved the top results with eight Grade 9s and three Grade 8s and is staying on in the Sixth Form to study Physics, Maths, Computing and Psychology. Freya Cowan and Harry Vellios have also achieved an exceptional set of results with 6 Grade 9s and 4 Grade 9s respectively.

Jane Mills, Acting Headteacher said, “I am so pleased to see that the hard work by the students and the commitment of their teachers has produced some outstanding results. We are especially delighted with our Science and Maths results which produced 25 Grade 9s out of the 52.”

At Latymer Upper School the old style letter grades were still in use and over 90% of the grades at were A* or A with 70% at A*. 39 students achieved at least 10 A* grades and 88 pupils achieved at least 8 A* grades, over half of the year group.

Amongst the students celebrating were 13 bursary students who achieved a total of 106 A*s with four of them attaining a full house of 10 A*s. Ghaith, who joined in Year 10 after fleeing from Syria, achieved excellent grades and looks forward to studying STEM subjects at A Level.

Of the five sets twins receiving their results, the 10 students altogether achieved 84 A* grades with sisters Emma and Rachel celebrating a clean sweep.

Ghaith joined in Year 10 after fleeing from Syria

Latymer Upper Head, David Goodhew commented, "Congratulations to our GCSE students for their outstanding set of results. I am very proud that, as well as achieving top academic grades, many of our students have become accomplished debaters, musicians, actors, scientists and sportsmen & women and contributed to a whole host of clubs and societies at the School. I look forward to following their progress in the Sixth Form as they continue to pursue their academic and extra-curricular passions.”

St Benedict's, Ealing, say they are celebrating the school’s best ever GCSE results, with 66% of pupils being awarded grades 9 to 7, the equivalent of A*-A in the new style GCSEs. This represents a 12% increase from last year’s results, and an impressive improvement of almost 20% since 2016.

Four pupils have achieved nine grade 9s, including two with 10 of the top grades, an exceptional achievement since 9 equates to a higher mark than the old A*. Eight pupils have attained 7 or more grade 9s and 11% of St Benedict’s GCSE candidates were awarded straight 9 and 8 grades, which is equivalent to achieving a complete set of A* grades.

The Headmaster, Andrew Johnson, said, “I am extremely proud of our pupils’ achievement, and congratulate them on their huge and very well-deserved success. Our pupils, and their teachers, have worked very hard to achieve these excellent results. The new style GCSEs have been designed to be academically more demanding, and we have sought to prepare our pupils rigorously for this, by creating a culture of academic endeavour, intellectual curiosity and high expectations. Equipped with the ability to learn, research, evaluate and apply their knowledge, they are now very well prepared for advanced level study in the sixth form.”

ArtsEd’s Day School has produced an excellent set of GCSE results with 100% of students securing six GCSEs with many students securing eight, nine, and even ten!

With the introduction of the new Top Grade of ‘9’, equivalent to A** (compared to the 8 previous grades from A*- G), ArtsEd has seen a third of students achieve this new grade in one or more subjects, and over 30% of all the GCSE exam results were the highest grades of 7, 8, or 9.

Adrian Blake, ArtsEd’s Day School and Sixth Form Headteacher said;"We are delighted that our Year 11 students have done so well in their exams especially with the changing landscape of GCSEs. To achieve so many Top Grades just shows how multi-talented our students really are, and I am enormously proud of each and every one of them".

Current ArtsEd Day School and Sixth Form students have recently performed in West End productions of Matilda, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Kinky Boots. Alumna Samantha Barks takes on Julia Robert’s role in the premiere of Pretty Woman on Broadway, alumnus Thomas Dennis is playing the lead of Albert in the National Theatre’s UK tour of War Horse, Elena Skye is playing Eponine in Les Misérables on the West End and Hollywood’s new Charlie’s Angels line-up features alumna Ella Balinska.

This is the first cohort of pupils to have taken the new style of GCSEs being awarded for the first time this year. Hailed as the most significant change in the examination system since O-levels were replaced 30 years ago, these exams are said to be “more demanding, more fulfilling and more stretching”, and were introduced by the former education secretary, Michael Gove.

Grades from 9 to 1 replace A* to G. According to Ofqual, which regulates public examinations in England, the new grade 7 starts at the same standard as the former A grade, meaning 9, 8 and 7 grades replace the old A* and A. The 9 is equivalent to the top half of A* awards, while an 8 encompasses the bottom portion of A* and the top part of an A.

Cath Jadhav, the director of standards at Ofqual, said “Grade 9 is not the same as the old A* grade. It’s a new grade designed to recognise the very best performance. So in every subject there will be fewer grade 9s awarded than A*s in the old GCSEs.” On average across the country, only 4% of candidates achieved the new grade 9 this year.

August 28, 2018