Students and staff celebrate excellent A Level results

17 Aug 2023

Students and staff at St. Mary’s are celebrating another excellent set of A Level results this summer.

Continuing the high standards of previous years the ‘Class of 2023’ recorded a 99 per cent pass rate in the key examinations, with almost a third of students (30 per cent) achieving three or more A*, A or B grades.

Overall a fifth of all passes were at the highest A*/A grades, and more than half (52 per cent) were at A*, A or B grade.

This year’s candidates also included a significant proportion of ‘straight A’ students with almost a fifth of the cohort achieving three or more A* or A grades, an increase on last year and very encouraging in the context of the downward trend nationally.

Top of the class at St. Mary’s this year is 18-year-old Sami Al-Machhoor from Prescot who has achieved an incredible four A* passes in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths. Sami is heading to Imperial College London to study Medicine.

He commented: “I’m really pleased with my results and would like to thank my family and my teachers for their incredible support. I owe a lot to the St. Mary’s community for making me the person I am today – I’ll definitely keep in touch.”

Two other of St. Mary’s high achievers are Oxford bound. Head Girl 18-year-old Rachael Fraser from Blundellsands recorded A* passes in English Literature and Spanish and an A grade in History. She will be studying Spanish and Portuguese at Oxford.

Victoria McKinley-Smith, also 18 from Mossley Hill, will study French and German at Oxford after achieving A* passes in these two subjects at A Level, plus an A in Music.

Head Boy, 18-year-old Xavier Cottrell-Boyce from Blundellsands, is planning to study Ancient and Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh after achieving an A* in Religious Studies and A grades in Geography and History.

Meanwhile, two of our students who only arrived in the UK from Hong Kong with their families two years ago also achieved excellent A Level results.

Jasmine Law, aged 18, recorded an A* in Art and Design and two As in Maths and Business, while Serena Tang, aged 17, achieved an A* in Maths, an A in Biology and a B in Chemistry.

Excellent results will also enable two of our students to take up prestigious degree apprenticeships – 18-year-old Liam Hughes at Deutsche Bank and Robert Johnson, also 18, at the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology. our Principal, Mike Kennedy, commented: “We are very proud of all our students who have worked incredibly hard to achieve these results, despite the challenges they have faced over the last few years.

“This year’s A Level cohort did not sit GCSEs two years ago because of the coronavirus pandemic so these were the first public examinations they have taken.

“They deserve credit for their commitment, resilience and positivity, and we congratulate them on this excellent set of results.”

Mr Kennedy also highlighted the very good value-added performance at St. Mary’s, with many candidates beating their predicted grades, proof of the excellent progress that students make at the school.