Pupils Across Hammersmith Excel at GCSE and A Level


Year 11 and Year 13 groups cope well in challenging environment

Pupils at West London Free School celebrate their GCSE results
Pupils at West London Free School celebrate their GCSE results. Picture: WLFS

Results from schools in the Hammersmith area for GCSE and A Levels show that students have coped well with a exceptionally challenging environment.

This year, following the cancellation of examinations, grades were awarded through a process of teacher assessed grades, against a national standard and approved and awarded by the exam boards. The government is not publishing performance data for any schools or colleges due to the varying impact of the pandemic.

Three students from West London Free School are going to Oxbridge this year with four gaining places to study medicine at other universities. Over half the cohort will be attending a Russell Group university or equivalent institution.

Robert Peal and Ben McLaughlin, Joint Headteachers, said, “Our Year 13 pupils have had an extremely challenging two years of Sixth Form study, but have triumphed in this adversity through their commitment and perseverance. We offer them all our very best wishes for the next stages in their education and careers, and hope that they retain fond memories of their experiences at the West London Free School.”

Luke, who will be studying music at St Peter’s College, University of Oxford, said, ‘The brilliant teachers at WLFS supported me through the many expected and unexpected challenges of the past two years. Their support both in academics and university application was unparalleled allowing me to achieve top marks and secure my place.’

Ruhama, who will be studying Liberal Arts at Tufts University (USA) via the Sutton Trust partnership programme added, “West London Free School Sixth Form has provided me with the highest quality education as well as the best support system. Because of this, I’ve managed to gain a fully funded scholarship to an American University, something I would have never been able to achieve without this great school.”

Luke (left) will be going to St. Peter's, Oxford while Ruhama is off to Tufts in the US
Luke (left) will be going to St. Peter's, Oxford while Ruhama is off to Tufts in the US

19 students at Latymer Upper Schools secured places at Oxford and Cambridge and 30 at top international universities including MIT, Princeton, Yale and UPenn.

Head, David Goodhew, said, “We are all immensely proud of the achievements of our students this year whose Sixth Form experience has been unlike any other. Whilst they were not able to sit their examinations this year owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, they studied hard and having been through a rigorous and fair process they have now secured places at top universities here in the UK and abroad, winning places on prestigious courses like the Huntsman and VIPER programmes at UPenn. They’ve also raised money for the NHS and other local charities, helped to deliver food and care packages to the vulnerable, and maintained a positive and purposeful attitude in the face of this pandemic. We celebrate their achievements alongside their qualities of perseverance, resilience, adaptability, good humour and intellectual curiosity that characterise a Latymerian. I am proud that we have been able to support bright young people, from all backgrounds, to realise their potential. Through our Inspiring Minds bursary campaign we are committed to supporting more students, like Oyin and Tianrun, in the future through our bursary programme.”

Oyin (who joined the School on a full bursary in Year 7) and has just achieved top marks across all 4 of her subjects; having been offered places at Cambridge, Princeton and St Andrews she will be going to MIT where she plans to major in Chemistry. Also heading abroad is Ariana who got 2A*s and 2 As and will join the prestigious Huntsman programme at UPenn. She’ll be joined there by 3 fellow Latymerians (a record for the School), Michael, Olivia, and Amelia, who got a place on the illustrious VIPER programme.

Music Scholars Tianrun (who has been at Latymer on a bursary since joining the Prep School) and Nik both got straight A*s and will be going to Cambridge to read Maths. They will be joined at Cambridge by, Gabriel, who also got 4 A*s and will be reading music, and thespian, Matthew, who got 3 A*s and will be studying Psychological & Behavioural studies.

At Latymer Upper School over half of all the GCSE grades awarded were 9s and 83% of grades were at 9-8 (A*) with 76 students achieved straight 9-8 (A*) grades. Of the 22 students who achieved straight 9s at GCSE, some are bursary holders and many are students who have successfully balanced their studies with additional co-curricular, academic and community activities. For example, Pearl and Liza took part in the Young Writers Scheme this year; Liza also won a scholarship to Cambridge Summer School and completed an online legal internship this Easter time.

Latymer Upper School Head, David Goodhew said, “We are very proud of our pupils who have achieved outstanding success at GCSE. Their success is testament to their hard work and I pay tribute to the young people of this current Year 11 who have shown determination, perseverance and strength of character during the last two years of their school career which have been unbelievably disrupted. They have shown great resilience and adaptability, moving between in-person and online teaching and dealing with the uncertainty surrounding this year’s assessments. They have established very strong foundations for A Level and Pre-U study and are in an excellent position to make the most of life in the Sixth Form. I look forward to welcoming them back in September to our new Sixth Form Centre.

“My thanks go to our teaching staff who have worked incredibly hard to ensure that the Teacher-Assessed Grades for GCSE and IGCSE level were awarded fairly and with huge amounts of integrity. The workload on departments has been colossal.”

Students at Bridge Academy in Fulham are celebrating their GCSE results, enabling them to embark on the next chapter of their education. Staff have worked hard as a team and in partnership with professionals and volunteers to ensure that pupils received a 20-hour academic online offer per week during lockdowns, welfare calls, safeguarding check-ins and mentoring sessions daily. The academy is proud of the fact that since the first lockdown it has been open every day to support the vulnerable young people from the borough

Despite the challenges of the year and the cancellation of exams the academy has success with some standout individual achievements including:

Jade Ayers who successfully achieved a grade 4 in Maths, grade 5 in English Literature, Double Science grade 5-4, English Language grade 6 and PE grade 4. Alongside these academic grades, Jade engaged with a weeklong residential at The Lyric Theatre which was funded by the Y11 transition allocation. Through this Jade developed a love of theatre which led to her being offered a six-week placement on their theatre course during June and July.

Jade has since decided that she would like to pursue a career in acting and is undertaking A Levels to support this at a sixth form college in September. Jade has offers from three sixth form colleges; Saint Charles, William Morris and Richmond. The academy is particularly proud of Jade’s achievements as she is a full-time carer for her mother and three young siblings.

Annakela Gourlay successfully achieved Maths grade 5, English Literature grade 6, Double Science grade 5-5 and English Language grade 4, as well as grade 2 in PE. Annakela had attended three secondary schools prior to joining Bridge Academy and experienced challenges regulating her behaviour in and out of class which meant that until September 2020, Annakela was not meeting her academic potential. Staff encouraged her to recognise her strengths. During the Autumn term Annakela even started working independently at home to complete work and during lockdown Annakela engaged every day and in all lessons and this helped to develop her confidence and skills further. Despite mental health challenges and an initial lack of self-confidence in her abilities, through her time at the academy, Annakela has been able to achieve the grades needed for her to go onto to college to study accounting. Annakela has offers for Sixth Form from Kingston, West Thames and Stanmore.

Tony Goral successfully achieved a grade 4 in Maths, a grade 6 in English Literature, a grade 5-4 in Double Science, a grade 4 in English Language and a grade 6 in PE. Tony came to Bridge Academy in December this academic year through fair access panel as a result of poor attendance in his mainstream school. Tony attended over 95% of the time at Bridge both in person and remotely during lockdown. Tony engaged with horse riding, rowing, go karting and weekly gym visits throughout the year and flourished in the school environment and has gone on to achieve far more that he was predicted within the mainstream environment. He has a place to study Business at West London College.

The Moat and Moat Sixth Form in Fulham have seen success across the board this week. Its first ever group of year 13 pupils at the Sixth Form have achieved 100% A-Level pass rate.

Steve Proctor, Head of Sixth Form says “I’m extremely proud of all of our students who have shown maturity and resilience during this difficult time”.

The Moat School Year 11 pupils have also achieved excellent results this exam year, pupils have gained an 84% pass rate of a 4 or above in their GCSEs. There was an 89% pass rate in English, a statistic that suggests incredible work from pupils and teachers across the board for a dyslexia specialist institution.

The pupils managed a 100% pass rate in History, Geography, Art, Design Technology and Photography.

The Moat School pupils achieved outstanding results in the BTECs and Technical Awards. There was a 100% pass rate across Performing Arts, Digital Media, Business Studies and Childcare.

Koen Claeys, Headmaster at The Moat School, says “Our teaching and therapy staff have also gone above and beyond, as they often do, to show their support for learners here at The Moat and this is what makes each and every year so worthwhile for all involved.”

Nationally, the proportion of A-level entries awarded an A grade or higher reached a record level with girls performing better than boys including in maths.

44.8% of UK students were awarded an A or A* grade this summer a rise of 6.3 percentage points compared with last year.

The proportion of entries awarded an A* grade this year increased to 19.1% the highest ever level since this grade was introduced in 2010.

Ofqual have published figures showing that 6.9% of students in England were awarded three A*s compared with 4.3% in 2020 and 1.6% in 2019.

GCSE results nationallly saw top grades (7/As and above) rise to 28.9% compared to 26.2% in 2020, while grades 4/Cs and above - seen as passes - rose to 77.1% up from 76.3%.

Teachers submitted grades for the more than half a million pupils on GCSE courses this year, using evidence such as mock exams, course work and tests.

 

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August 13, 2021