She’s a-star!

Photo: CHRIS SUNDERLAND

GCSE glee . . . for Blue Coat pupil Sarah Lewis who hugs her mum Ann. Picture by CHRIS SUNDERLAND

GCSE 2008

BLUE Coat School pupil Sarah Lewis was celebrating this morning after learning she had chalked up a magnificent 12 A* — one for every subject she studied.

She is the only pupil ever to have achieved such a feat at the school. Sarah helped the school smash all previous records, and was among thousands of Oldham teenagers who nervously opened their results slips this morning.

Many Oldham schools reported their best-ever results.

Sarah was among 35 students who achieved grade A or better for all subjects, and one of five pupils who achieved an amazing 10 A* grades or more at Blue Coat School.

Brian Devenport, deputy head, said he was delighted with the results, particularly of the success in traditional GCSE courses. A bumper 90 per cent achieved 5 A* to C grades, with 83 per cent including English and maths. Breeze Hill School celebrated its highest A* to C grade pass rate, with 40 per cent gaining the benchmark of at least five.

The figure including English and maths leaped a huge 9 per cent to a new record of 26 per cent, and 99 per cent of students achieved at least one qualification.

Delighted head teacher Bernard Phillips said the results set new records for the school.

Successes included head boy Taofik Adigun, who studied for four years at Breeze Hill after arriving from Nigeria in 2004.

He achieved 14 A to C grades including an A* in business, and As in maths, English and two sciences. In total, nine students achieved 12 or more A* to C grades, and 25 achieved 10 or more A* to C grades

Grange School got its second best ever results, with five A to C grade passes hitting the 71 per cent mark.

Headteacher Graeme Hollinshead said: “It was our best overall result, bringing another record year.”

Mr Hollinshead, who is due to retire this year after four years as head teacher and 37 years at the school, added: “It’s a fantastic feeling to be leaving the with another set of record results.”


MORE stories, results: see accompanying items!