This has been a very turbulent year for exam results. There has been a great deal of media coverage of the issues including changes to examination syllabuses, new rules governing marking and assessment, and the decision by the boards to alter the way re-marks are dealt with. Despite all that, students at The Woodroffe School have once again achieved an excellent set of A Level of results, confirming the school’s position as one of the most successful fully comprehensive sixth forms in the county.
59% of entries were graded A*, A or B, with 24% at A*/A.
There were some outstanding individual A-Level performances: Alaina Cockerell achieved 4 A*s in Chemistry, Maths, Further Maths and Physics; Isabella Brown gained 3A*s and a B; Ari Saltmarsh achieved 3A*s. Frieda Hall-Hickman gained one A* and two As to secure her place at Oxford to study History. Lily Whitehead also achieve an A* and two As. George Chantler, Verity Fuller and Lindsey Johnson all gained three A grades.
Results at AS Level were also encouraging with 62% of students achieving C or above.
Again, there were some excellent individual results: Cody Lau and Matthew McStea both achieved four A grades; Mia Cawthorne and Rumi Thompson gained 3As and 1 B; Jack Price 3As; Iona Adair, Dominic Beardwood and Luke Johnson 2As and 2Bs.
Dr. Richard Steward, Headteacher of The Woodroffe School said, ‘As always, I am delighted to celebrate the success of our sixth formers. I am always impressed by the resilience of students who year on year manage to navigate the complexities of A-Level study to attain outstanding results. It is great to see so many individuals achieving A* and A grades and pleasing to note the consistency in results across all subject areas: for a medium sized comprehensive school in a rural area, Woodroffe offers an excellent range of subject choices at A-level and it is good to see students performing well in all of them. It is particularly encouraging to see top class performance in both the arts and sciences. Despite lots of warnings in the press regarding changes to A-levels and more demanding exam papers, Woodroffe has managed to improve upon last year’s results with the average point score for a student’s best three A-Levels expressed as a grade now an impressive B-.
Once again students will be leaving Woodroffe to take up places at many of the best universities in the country and I am pleased to say that the majority of students met their target grades and secured university places. We all wish them well and are confident that they are on course to succeed at degree level.
With constant changes to examination specifications and accountability measures, this has been a difficult year for sixth forms and sixth formers, and it is a tribute to the professionalism and expertise of staff at Woodroffe that students have been guided so successfully through very turbulent waters.’
Richard Steward
Headteacher