Students flying high on GCSE results day
Reporter: Martha Southall
Date published: 23 August 2018
Successful Hulme students show off their certificates with School Prinicipal Craig Mairs (third from right)
Teenagers across Oldham have been celebrating another year of terrific GCSE results this morning (Thursday).
The Chronicle has been at a handful of schools to gauge the mood and hear lots of stories of academic success.
Hulme’s Year 11 students achieved a superb set of GCSE results.
The overall pass rate (A*-C / 9-4) has risen to 99%, the highest the school has ever achieved; with 97% of students achieving the national benchmark of five A*-C / 9-4 grades including English and Maths.
The percentage of the very top grades (A* / 9-8) rose by 12% and was also a school record at 32%.
Well over half of Hulme’s grades (55%) were at A*-A / 9-7 level, an increase of 6% from last year.
44% of the cohort achieved the threshold of at least seven x A /seven grades for one of Hulme’s academic scholarships to enter the sixth form, including 16 students who gained nine or more A*- A / 9-7 grades.
Hulme’s top performer was Gabriel Connaghan who achieved the remarkable feat of securing a full set of Grade 9s.
There were many other superb individual performances including: Nathan Green (seven Grade 9s, two Grade 8s and one A*); Imogen Perry (seven Grade 9s, three Grade 8s); Alexander Kovacs (seven Grade 9s, two Grade 8s); Sagarika Koppera (six Grade 9s, three Grade 8s, one A) and Fatima Hussain (six Grade 9s, one Grade 8 and three Grade 7s).
Principal Craig Mairs said: “These are record-breaking results for the school and reflect the hard work of our talented pupils and dedicated staff team.
"Much has been made nationally about the transitional nature of GCSEs at present; but I am delighted to see Hulme students continuing to fulfil their high potential.
"They can be proud of what they have achieved and look forward to beginning their A Level courses."
Fatima, who now moves on to study for her A-levels, added: "I'm really happy, I'm so pleased with my results.
"All my hard work has paid off, so that's really good.
"The results were more than I expected - a 9 in drama?!"
Waterhead Academy announce huge GCSE success, with some stellar individual performances.
James Haseldine, Principal at the Oldham academy, was thrilled with the pupils’ record-breaking performance: “We are absolutely delighted that we’ve got a record number of grade 9s – the highest grade that examining bodies can award.
“We’re really pleased that those students have achieved those really high grades.”
Headteachers across the country have been warning of the demoralising message that the new grading system and more difficult specifications could send to pupils, giving Waterhead’s success particular weight.
Of course, this overall performance is merely the sum of the brilliant achievements of individual students:
“We’ve had some huge success stories individually,” Mr Haseldine added.
“We’ve got a young man in year 11 called Vishal who got his A-level Maths last year at the age of 15, and this year he swept the board with grade 9s across the piece.
“It’s a credit to him and his family and down to his hard work.”
Vishal achieved seven Grade 9s and one Grade 8.
Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, there was a rise in the overall proportion reaching the GCSE pass levels - up by 0.5% to 66.9%.
For the first time most of the GCSEs in England are being graded from 9 to 1.
About 4% of entries received the top grade 9, as pupils took the reformed, more stretching GCSE courses.
About 90% of entries in England this year were in the new challenging form of GCSE, with more difficult content and mostly marked on final exams, rather than coursework.
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