Schools’ delight at GCSE success
SCHOOLS and students from across the area have been keen to celebrate their good GCSE pass rates. This is despite national figures showing a drop in the number of higher grades awarded this year and a dip in the overall pass rate for the first time in the exam’s 25-year history.
Balloons and bunting greeted students at TheMalling School, East Malling as they poured through the gates to pick up their GCSE results. Students and staff celebrated
yet another year-on-year in- crease in success rates with 45% of pupils achieving 5 A*-C grades, including maths and English. This was a 10% in- crease on last year. The English department scored 62% of grades at A*-C, 13% up on last year.
Principal Carl Roberts who joined the school five years ago at the same time as the 16-year- olds, said: “I am particularly pleased that they have achieved the school’s best ever results. The students and teachers have worked extremely hard and de- serve the success that they have achieved. I am incredibly proud of all of them.” GCSE results in science, tech- nology, engineering and maths were especially strong this year at Holmesdale Technology Col- lege, Snodland. Overall, 91% of students achieved five or more A*-C grades. High fliers were Bradley Harris with four A*s, five As, three Bs and one C grade; Jessie Walton with seven A*s, three As and three B grades and Rachael Holyhead with two A*s, three As and nine Bs. Twins Cieran and Alex Sims- Glover both studied the same nine subjects at GCSE with Alex pipping his twin by only two grades. School principal Julia Camp-
bell said: “Congratulations must go to all our students on their excellent results and our sincere thanks to all the hard work of our teaching staff.” At Aylesford Sports College,
59% of pupils achieved five GCSEs at grades A*-C includ-
Four of the 40 pupils who got 10 or more A*-A grades at Maidstone Grammar
Pattison (10 A*/As at GCSE and two As at AS); Ganga Gurung (10 A*/As at GCSE and two As at AS); Laura Wilment (10 A*/As at GCSE and two As at AS) and talented artist Katie Driver (10 A*/As at GCSE and two As at AS). Fourteen stu- dents achieved straight A*/A grades. St Simon Stock Catholic School reported the best GCSE results in the school’s history, with 70% achieving five or more GCSEs at A*-C, including English language and maths, and 90% earning five or more A*-C grades in other subjects. High-achievers included
The Malling School principal Carl Roberts with Robyn Sparkes, who passed nine subjects
ing maths and English. Delighted deputy head Char-
lie Guthrie said the results were the school’s best ever. He added that pupils had gained a 71% pass rate for English and a 68% pass rate for maths. Pupils who had followed vocational courses had reflected the suc- cess of GCSE students. At Maidstone Grammar School for Girls,headMrs Mary Smith said: “Our GCSE results this year are the best ever, with 62% A*-A grades overall, and 40 students achiev- ing10ormoreA*-Agrades each.” Most spectacular of all were the English results, with 91% gaining an A*/A. At New Line Learning Academy (NLL), students con- tinued to improve on their GCSE results this year, with 41% achieving five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C includ-
ing English and maths, and 79% getting five A*-C grades – a new record for the school. Six Year Nine students, in- cluding Cameron Croucher, who earnedaCinmaths and B in English, also sat and passed their English andMaths GCSEs – two years early. Fears by the girls at Invicta Grammar that theymight be af- fected by a dip in results na- tionally were unfounded, with students achieving 61% A*/A grades and 28.2% at A* in a year that the school also raised over £32,000 for charity. The percentage of students gaining eight A*/A grades was 56.6%. Among the high-achievers
were Kiera Doughty (nine A*/As at GCSE, three As at AS); Charlotte Summers (11 A*/As at GCSE and two As at AS); Felicity Murray (10 A*/As at GCSE and two As at AS); Leah
Sarah Hughes (10 A* grades in 10 GCSE subjects); Adam Thompson (seven A*s, three As, one B); Sarah Pattinson (seven A*s, three As); Michael Oliver (six A*s, five As); Lara Epsley (four A*s, six As) and Daniel Ellesmere and Clara Senior (four A*s, five As, two Bs). In spite of a big fall in the number of pupils getting top grades in the sciences nation- ally, St Simon Stock – a science specialist School – was pleased with its results. Deputy head Jon Malone said:
“In science our results were about 20% higher than last year’s national average at A*-C, with 89% of students achieving an A*-C in additional science and 84% in core science. Stu- dents also achieved highly in English (80% A*-C) and Maths (83% A*-C), both of which are also significantly higher than last year’s national averages.” St Augustine Academy pupils celebrated a 10% im- provement from last year on five A*-Cs including English andMaths. They gained an im- pressive A*-C result of 69% in English and 59% in Maths. A total of 52% of pupils achieved fiveA* to C grades in- cluding English and maths at Valley Park School. There was an A* to C pass rate of 96%. Almost 50%of pupils at Oak-
wood Park Grammar School achieved at least five A* and As. In total, 21 students gained 10 or more A*s and As.
56.6% of students gained eight or more A*/A grades at Invicta Grammar
Holmesdale’s Alex Sims- Glover pipped twin Alex by two grades
Cameron Croucher with NLL’s director of English Miss Rogers and director of mathsMr Jones
34 Malling Support YOUR local paper — and we can support YOU - advertise on 01622 630330
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48