GCSEs: Success as pupils' grades improve
Students and staff were once again celebrating another year of record results as more pupils in Northamptonshire hit the top grades in their GCSEs yesterday.
Jubilant headteachers said 2009 had resulted in their best set of marks with a higher proportion of 16-year-olds gaining a collection of A*/A grades or five or more A* to C grades including in English and maths – the Government benchmark.
Northamptonshire County Council, which is responsible for schools, also confirmed that initial analysis into performance had shown a rise of four percentage points to 49 per cent in year 11 pupils meet the Government's target grades.
This year's success stories included Northampton School for Girls where 82 per cent of students achieved at least five C grades and above, an increase of eight per cent on last summer, and Northampton School for
Boys, where 86 per cent of the year group secured a minimum of the top five grades including in English and maths.
At William Parker in Daventry the number of students achieving five or more A* to C grades is one of the highest the school has ever achieved.
It was a watershed moment for Northampton Academy where 40 per cent of students secured five or more A* to C including English and maths.
Weston Favell School in Booth Lane South, also in Northampton, which is in the Government's National Challenge programme, surpassed the target set by the county council by achieving its best GCSE results for 16 years with 40 per cent of their year 11 cohort achieving five or more passes at A* to C.
The pass rate including English and maths has risen by 12 per cent to hit the National Challenge target of 30 per cent.
Nationally, the overall A*-C rate has increased by 1.4 percentage points to 67.1 per cent.
The overall A* to G rate has also increased from 98.4 per cent in 2008 to 98.6 per cent and the A* to A rate has gone up from 20.7 per cent in 2008 to 21.6 per cent.
More than one in five entries – equivalent to 21.6 per cent in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – were awarded an A or A*, a rise of 0.9 percentage points on last year.
Boys showed a marked improvement in maths with 57.6 per cent gaining A* to C grades, a rise of 1.8 percentage point.
There has been a significant increase in entries for the three individual sciences, with chemistry up 20.3 per cent, biology up 18 per cent and physics up 21 per cent.
Results for modern foreign languages (MFL) were also up, with the A*-C rate up 1.8 percentage points to 70.1 per cent in French, and up two percentage points in German to 74 per cent.
Councillor Andrew Grant, cabinet member for children and young people, said: "Early indications suggest that Northamptonshire has improved on last year's figures, with preliminary analysis showing a four per cent increase, from 60 to 64 per cent, in the percentage of students achieving five or more GCSEs or equivalent.
"We're also seeing evidence of a four per cent increase in the percentage of students achieving A*-C grade GCSEs or equivalent,
including GCSE English and maths. This brings the figure to 49 per cent.
"But today of all days we should look beyond the statistics and remember that it represents the culmination of years of learning
and studying.
"We're hearing some wonderful anecdotal reports of individual
achievements and I would like to offer our congratulations to all those students getting their results today."
Schools who have failed in the past to meet the Government's floor target of 30 cent of pupils getting five good GCSEs, including
English and maths, are designated National Challenge schools.
Although they receive extra funding for supporting students, they risk closure and being converted into academies or replaced by National Challenge Trusts if they do not meet the 30 per cent target.
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