New-look tests, same great results

Photo: Vincent Brown

WHAT a result! Blue Coat School pupils Phillippa Nightingale, Paul Peters and Daniel McLoughlin were jumping for joy this morning after scooping 11 A* in their GCSEs. Daniel has actually gone one better — he achieved an A* grade at A-level maths last week after taking the subject early!

OLDHAM pupils receiving their GCSE results today are the first to be affected by the Government’s exam reforms.

Early indications nationally are that some schools are seeing turbulent results following the changes which include re-sits no longer counting in league tables and the replacing of modules in some subjects with one exam.

But the first Oldham schools to release their figures are celebrating record results.

Results at Hathershaw College have gone up for the sixth year in a row with 60 per cent of pupils achieving the Government’s gold standard of five A* to C grades including English and maths, up from last 52 per cent last year.

The school had also focussed on improving English results, with the number of pupils receiving an A* to C grade leaping from 54 per cent 73 per cent.

Radclyffe School, Chadderton, also posted its best results, 56 per cent of pupils hitting the headline target, up from 51 per cent. A record 142 A*s were notched up and the 332 pupils who achieved A grades is the highest ever.

But the five A* to C pass rate, including English and maths, figure slipped slightly from 45 per cent to 44 per cent at Waterhead Academy.

Outgoing principal Nigel McQuoid said that the system appeared to be “so concerned with the future that it has forgotten today’s GCSE students”.

He added “Thankfully, we have been able to shield Waterhead’s students to some degree from this volatility and have preserved our commitment to focus on them, and not on any game-playing with the so-called league tables.”


TWELVE PAGE results supplement in tonight’s print and eChron editions