Teachers’ Praise For Students As A-levels Results Are Announced

Published on: 16 Aug, 2018
Updated on: 16 Aug, 2018

By Laura Neuhaus

At 8am this morning (August 16, 2018) students from Guildford school’s sixth forms and colleges received their A-Level results.

Students lining up to receive their A-level results at Guildford County School.

At Guildford County School students lined up to collect the white A4 envelope containing their exam results. They generally seemed happy and relieved.

Head teacher Steve Smith said he is delighted with this year’s results, with more than 68% of students achieving an A* to B, and 38% gaining an A* to A. Overall, the pass rate was over 99% and 87% of all grades were A* to C grades.

Staff were proud of all their pupils and keen to point out particular hard workers. Jimmy Turner achieved A A A* grades and will be studying law and politics at Liverpool. His English teacher, Annabel Gibbs, congratulated him warmly and said that he was a student who “would never stop”, always pushing himself further.

Emma Dutton, said how after “a month of stressing” she was relieved to achieve her target grades of B C C to go on to study childhood and youth at Portsmouth University.

Four pupils of the 105 in the upper sixth at the County School secured place at Oxbridge. One of them, Joe Lockhart, will be studying natural science at Cambridge, getting four A*. Joe was relieved after what he called a “rough night”.

Mr Smith felt the school’s results were “the best year in the school’s history”, but also added that for those who didn’t secure their university place, an experienced team of teaching staff will be there to guide them through the clearing process.

County School students Kay Raftery (A* A* A*) is going to Imperial and Ainaz Khader (B B C) is looking for a place to study psychology.

For students like Ainaz Ghader, the university they will go to in a month still remains uncertain. Ainaz wants to study psychology at university but missed out on her place at Sussex. She achieved the grades B B C and will be helped by staff to find the best university for her by going into clearing.

Kay Raftery who got three A* grades and will be studying biomedicine at Imperial college, said she is planning on having a barbecue with friends this evening, followed by a night out in Guildford.

County School students Alasdair Gillies (B B B) is going to Kent. Jo Lockhart (A* A* A* A*) is going to Cambridge and Kiam Pillay (A A* A*) is going to Durham.

George Abbot School students will also be celebrating. 83% of students got A* to C grades with a 99% pass rate. The school was particularly proud of its BTEC results too, where 75% of students secured a distinction or distinction*.

George Abbot’s Suzie Lewin is one of three going to Oxbridge. She achieved four A* grades. Another three students will be reading medicine at university while all its students look forward to their graduation ceremony on September 11.

The director of sixth form at George Abbot, Tom Robinson, said: “This has been another excellent year. We pride ourselves on high levels of academic achievement but also on the development of the whole student. These results are just reward for the hard work and dedication.”

Guildford High School also reports a successful year of A-level results. 94.5% of the 99 pupils got A* to B grades with 43.4% of grades being an A* grade.

Guildford High’s headmistress, Fiona Boulton, said the results were: “…the outcome of their effort combined with excellent teaching and support, [and] will allow them to pursue exciting opportunities. We wish them all great success for the future.”

The Royal Grammar School had a 100% A-level pass rate.

At the Royal Grammar School, the morning was also one of celebration. The school had a 100% pass rate with 41.3% of all grades being an A*, compared to the national average of 8% over recent years. A record high 83 of the 153 sixth-form students received offers from Durham, while a further 30 will be going to Oxbridge.

The headmaster, Dr Jon Cox, commented on the recent changes to A-levels to make them linear rather than modular courses. He said such changes have: “…created even greater levels of trepidation among students across the country,” yet the school is “delighted that, despite the anxiety in the media about the demanding nature of the examinations and rigorous marking, RGS students have again received an exceptional set of A-level results.”

Annabel Gibbs, the sixth-form co-ordinator at Guildford County made similar comments about the effect of the new system. She said teachers were worried how changes would “embed and settle down” but are delighted how pupils have performed despite the changes.

Across the UK, 411,860 pupils were placed successfully on their desired university courses, UCAS reports.