We are today celebrating the worthy achievements of our Year 11 students as they open their long-awaited GCSE and other qualification results.
This is only the second cohort of students to have sat formal examinations since 2019 due to examinations having been cancelled nationally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students faced significant and on-going disruption to their key stage 4 programme of study, and showed real resilience and resolve in keeping up to date with their studies; they are truly deserving of their successes in the exams, their personal development and broader achievements.
The school’s provisional results indicate a sound performance by the year group as a whole, and some superb individual achievements. Notably, 72% of students achieved a grade 4 or above in an English GCSE and 61% of students achieved a grade 4 or above in the mathematics GCSE (grade 4 is the standard pass, approximately equivalent to the former grade C, and is the minimum entry requirement for the majority of A Level/Level 3 courses). Over half of the year group achieved five or more GCSE passes including English and mathematics; and over a third of students achieved a strong pass (grade 5 or above – approximately equivalent to the former grade B) in English and mathematics. This year’s top performing subject was Biology, with 95% of the students achieving a grade 4 or above. Well done to all of the Year 11 students!
Congratulations also to the students in other year groups who also took qualifications this year, including the Year 10 students who took a GCSE in statistics, 97% of whom achieved a grade 4 or above. Outstanding!
Headteacher, Sara Spivey, stated, “It has been a real pleasure to see our Year 11 students again today and to congratulate them for their achievements. They have had an extraordinary experience of secondary school, and have shown real courage and optimism when dealing with the many challenges thrown at them by the pandemic and from elsewhere. We are very proud of all of their accomplishments at Springfield and they should be too. I’d like to thank the teachers and other staff who have supported the students throughout their school journey; they have worked diligently to ensure students are all able to progress onto further education and training, and we look forward to learning of our leavers’ success in the future. Well done to the whole Springfield team!”
In 2020 and 2021, grades were awarded by centre-assessed grades (CAGs) and teacher-assessed grades (TAGs) respectively. This different form of assessment meant that grades were higher than in normal exam years. In 2022, there was a transition year that meant grades were roughly a midpoint between 2019 and 2021. However, this year, grades are expected to be similar to the 2019 profile. This means that national results will be lower than the three previous years; this is not unexpected. National performance tables will be published by the DfE this year with caveats to explain that 2023 data should not be compared to previous years.
The photograph to the left shows some of Springfield’s top achievers in 2023 and students collecting their results from the school:
From left: Katie Immins, Renato Noka, Darlene Cotton, Daniel Rigby-Davis, Sakura Cheraghi, Hannah Duffy and Matthew Bennett