Ashfield students celebrating best ever GCSE results

Ashfield School and Sutton Community College are celebrating their best ever results.

At Ashfield School, high -flier Andy Wang was celebrating after gaining six A*, three grade As and two Bs. He is heading to study A Levels at the college’s 6th form and his ambition is to study computer science at university.

Amy Wood said she was “emotional but happy” after she learned she had passed four A*, Four As and two B grades. She said: “I am fairly happy with my grades - it was quite difficult.

“I love the college - the teachers are really helpful and I am staying on here.

She is hoping to eventually study psychology at university.

Hamish Perschke-Knowles gained seven As and one A* and a P2 in Engineering BTec. He is staying on to study A Levels and is hoping for a media based career.

Jonathan Clarke passed one A* four As three Bs and a C. After taking his A Levels Jonathan said he wanted to go on to music ciollege and eventually become a professional pianist. He said; “I was very worried about my results, but I am happy with them- I did quite well.”

At Sutton Community College, Mollie Thomas passed with one B, four Cs and three Ds. Mollie said: “I’m so happy - I have got everything I need for college it’s great.” She said she would be enrolling on a business studies course at West Notts College.

Imogen Thompson said she felt relieved after passing an A* five As three Bs. Imogen said; “I convinced myself I was going to fail.” She will continue at the sixth form to study A levels.

Olivia Jones gained an A* six Bs and a C . She also said she felt relieved as she had been “expecting to fail”.

New performance measures for GCSEs are in place this year, which means a change to the way exam results are reported.

The new accountability measure Progress 8 aims to capture the progress a pupil makes from the end of primary school to the end of secondary school.

An academy’s Progress 8 score is calculated as the average of its pupils’ Progress 8 scores.

It will give an indication of whether, as a group, pupils in the academy made above or below average progress.

Progress 8 scores were recorded last year so they could be compared to this year’s scores.

This year Sutton Community Academy’s overall score was +0.59 which places the academy in the category of outstanding progress.

This means pupils have progressed a half a grade more than their peers nationally.

Attainment 8 measures the achievement of a pupil across 8 qualifications including mathematics and English.

Previously results were reported in terms of 5 or more A* - C grades including English and maths.

If this were used for this year’s results the number of pupils gaining five or more A*to C grades including English and maths would be 41 per cent.

For pupils taking Ebacc, the pass rate of 22 per cent maintained the academy’s previous pass rate. This again will see the academy performing in line with the national average.

Principal, Tim Croft, said: “Sutton Community Academy is on a journey to outstanding and clearly our progress 8 figure reflects this.

“We have high expectations for students with a focus on preparing them for their future. I would like to thank students and staff for their hard work and wish them all the best for their next steps.”

Ashfield School is celebrating its best ever results.

Assistant head teacher Phil Taylor said : “Fifty eight per cent of pupils achieved grade C or above in English and Maths. Progress eight scores are looking positive and our pupils are making better progress than youngsters nationally.”

For pupils taking Ebacc he said the results had improved by 4.5 per cent this year.

Head teacher Dick Vasey said: “It is our best year ever.

“I am delighted so many students have achieved their potential and we are particularly pleased with the progress made by students in value added subjects.”