Five against all the odds

ACHIEVERS ... Clayton Pleasant, Glenn Brown, Mark Giles, Thomas Siwka and Andrew Benson turned it round to get great GCSE results.

GCSE 2008 IV

A GROUP of boys at one Oldham college were in danger of not fulfilling their potential and falling behind in their GCSEs.

But they are now celebrating success after being given help as well as inspiration from sporting superstars.

Leaving nothing to chance, the Hathershaw College of Technology and Sport regularly monitors the performance of its students during the year, particularly in Year 11.

Last November, the school analysed the predicted GCSE grades for all Year 11 and identified a group of boys who were in danger of not gaining at least the five GCSEs grades A* to C expected of them.

Some were provided with revised timetables and studied a new range of qualifications from ICT to art graphics. Others were monitored more regularly and given support in lessons from mentors.

The college also used its specialism in sport to motivate the boys with Commonweath and Olympic swimmer Adam Whitehead inspiring the boys with his success after a talk in how he succeeded despite a few problems at school. The boys also had visits to Oldham Athletic to reward them for their efforts.

The project and hard work paid off with the under-achievers getting great results.

Clayton Pleasant and Chris Jackson led the way with 10 A* to C grades each, Thomas Siwka got 9.5 and Glenn Brown, Paul Marshall, Adam Rogerson and Andrew Benson all got seven.

Lewis Tolan and Jonathon Hey got six, Louis Fitton and Danny Ashton five, Joshua Duffy and Michael Fisher got four and Matthew Hall three.

Assistant headteacher Mark Giles, who co-ordinated the project, said: “It’s easy to get into a cycle of failure and once that is broken and students can achieve, success leads to success. This is what happened with the work in school.

“The boys were given their own base, had new timetables and studied different subjects. They were basically given a fresh start in their final school year.

“Adam Whitehead was also an excellent role model for the boys and gave them something to aspire to. The project achieved its aims of engaging with the boys and achieving results well in excess of what the boys were predicted last November.”

The college recorded its best ever results overall — up by 1 per cent to 63 per cent for five A* to C. It had thought grades were down until some late results came in.

Assistant headteacher Lorna Philip said: “We are delighted. We have tracked down some missing results and the results have now gone up over night.”