After an anxious wait over the summer break, our Year 11 students are today opening their GCSE results and celebrating their very many successes at GCSE!
This was the first Year 11 cohort to take on the more challenging GCSE curriculum introduced by Michael Gove, the former Secretary of State for Education, with all of this year’s GCSE qualifications being assessed using the 9-1 grading system. This was first introduced in 2017 for English and Maths, with other subjects systematically following suit. Students worked exceptionally hard in the run up to the formal GCSE exams and thoroughly deserve their achievements.
We are pleased that provisional results indicate a good performance by the Year 11 cohort as a whole, and some fantastic individual achievements. Impressively, over 58% of Springfield’s students achieved a strong pass in English and over 51% of students achieved a strong pass in Maths; a strong pass is a grade 5 or above (equivalent to the former grade B). 12% of students achieved the highest grades of 9/8 in Maths, and 10% of students achieved the highest grades of 9/8 in English. 65% of students achieved a standard pass (grade 4 or above) in both English and Maths, which is the minimum entry requirement for the majority of A Level/Level 3 courses. Well done to all of the students!
Other notable successes this year include students’ performance in Science: over 90%, 84% and 87% of students achieved a grade 5 or above in Biology, Chemistry and Physics respectively; of these students, 14 achieved a grade 9 in Biology, 16 achieved a grade 9 in Chemistry and 16 achieved a grade 9 in physics – outstanding!
The coveted GCSE grade 9 is designed to be more difficult to achieve than the former A* grade and last year grade 9 made up only 4% of all results in England1. This year, overall, 100 grade 9 GCSEs across the subjects (6% of all grades) were achieved by Springfield’s students - an excellent achievement!
Headteacher, Sara Spivey, stated “I always look forward to results day. It’s been very enjoyable spending the morning celebrating students’ successes with them and having a final chance to wish them well as they move on to college or start their apprenticeships. Exams are rarely fun, but our students of all abilities have shown that hard work and determination pay off in the end. I’d like to thank the staff team who have supported the students throughout their time at the school. Well done to the whole Springfield community!”
The photograph below shows some of Springfield’s top achievers in 2019:
From left: Rebecca Myers, Jessica Hatton, James Large, Isabelle West, Jacob Evans-McBride, Hannah West
Results of those pictured:
Jacob Evans-McBride - one 5, one 6, one 7, five 8s and two 9s
Jessica Hatton - one A, three 8s and seven 9s
James Large - one B, one four, one 6, two sevens, two eights and four nines
Rebecca Myers - one 7, one 8 and eight 9s
Hannah West - one A, one 7, three 8s and six nines
Isabelle West - one A^, one 7, one 8 and eight nines
1 https://schoolsweek.co.uk/gcse-results-2018-grade-9-makes-up-4-of-all-results-in-england/
All results quoted above are provisional.