Celebrations as St. Mary’s College students achieve excellent GCSE results

24 Aug 2023

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

More than a third of all passes at the school (35 per cent) were at the highest 9-7 grades – an increase on the last pre-Covid year – with a fifth of candidates (20 per cent) achieving seven or more passes at these top levels.

Two thirds of candidates (65 per cent) recorded ten or more GCSE passes, with many achieving 11 or even 12 GCSEs.

Staff at the school believe that these results reflect the broad and balanced curriculum at St. Mary’s, and the fact that the college does not impose restrictions on the number of GCSE subjects that students can take.

The star performers at St. Mary’s this year were Sophie Jones, Archie Davies, Liana Pau and Ben Calder, who between them achieved a remarkable 43 GCSE passes, all but three of them at the highest 9-7 grades.

Unusually, three younger St. Mary’s pupils took foreign language GCSEs early this summer with passes for 14-year-old James Sands in Italian, Uliana Protsenko (also 14) in Russian and Nicolas Castineira (also 14) in Spanish. James and Uliana were both only 13 when they took their Italian and Russian GCSEs.

St. Mary’s College Principal, Mike Kennedy, commented: “We are very proud of the achievements of all our GCSE students this summer. Their results are a testament to their hard work over the last five years, and the fantastic support they have received from their teachers and parents over this period.

“I am also particularly pleased again by our value-added performance figures, which show many students doing better than their predicted grades. This is further proof of the excellent progress that students make at the school.”

Looking to the future, Mr Kennedy also highlighted the importance of GCSE examinations in a student’s educational journey.

He explained: “Achieving good GCSE grades is a firm foundation on which candidates can build future success at A Level, at university and in their future careers, so all our students and their families should be delighted at their achievements this summer.”