Congratulations to the girls at St Mary’s Calne on a superb set of examination results, with 24% of entries graded A*, 68% A*-A and 93% A*-B.
Almost 90% of the girls secured their first choice of university and will be going on to study at a range of leading Russell Group universities including: Oxford, Cambridge, Cardiff, Birmingham, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Imperial, LSE, Manchester, Newcastle, Southampton and Warwick.
Deputy Head Girl, Hannah McLintock, Leo Monson and Yasmin Watling (from Lacock, Wiltshire) all secured their places at Oxbridge. Hannah will be reading Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE) at Pembroke College, Oxford; Leo will be studying History at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, while Yasmin will be reading History at St John’s College, Cambridge.
Top performer, Aillam Chan, achieved 4 A*s and 1 A (and an A* in her Extended Project Qualification) and will be reading Economics at the prestigious London School of Economics.
Head Girl, Jess Patel, and her twin sister Sassie (both Music Scholars) achieved straight A*/As between them. The sisters will be heading to Durham University, Jess to read History and Sassie to read Anthropology and Archaeology. Deputy Head Girl, Phoebe Love (from Chippenham, Wiltshire) also secured her first choice of university with A*/A grades to read Geography at Bristol.
Also heading to Durham is local girl Iona Westwood (Bath), who will be reading Natural Sciences. Both Iona and Jemima Brown (from Calne, who also achieved top grades) can be extremely proud of their academic results, which they balanced with their elite sporting activities, both girls playing lacrosse for England.
The girls will be studying a diverse range of subjects at their chosen universities, including: Anthropology & Archaeology, Biological Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Business Management, Computer Science, Drama, Economics, English, Fine Art, Finance, French, Geography, History, History of Art, International Relations, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Modern Languages & Cultures, Natural Sciences, PPE, Philosophy & Theology, Psychology and Social Anthropology.
Charlotte Davies, from Calne, came to St Mary’s on the first Gabriel Scholarship (scholarships offered to gifted and talented pupils from the state sector) and she goes on to study Film at Falmouth.
In addition to their exceptional A Level results, 86% of the girls who took an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) achieved A*-A grades, demonstrating an excellent ability to pursue independent study and research in their chosen fields.
The impressive results included 100% A*-A grades in Further Maths for the seventh consecutive year, 100% A*-A in Maths, 83% A*-A in History, 100% A*-A in Drama and 75% A*-A in Latin and Psychology. The girls also achieved excellent grades in Science, with 50% or above A*-As in Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
Headmistress, Dr Felicia Kirk, commented: “The girls have all worked extremely hard and thoroughly deserve these outstanding results; I am proud of each and every one of them. There is a very special relationship at St Mary’s Calne between the girls and their teaching and House Staff, who help them on every step of their journey to achieve their full potential. This is reflected by our superb ‘Value Added’ scores (ranking in the top 4% of schools in England) for the progress made by students between the end of Year 11 and the end of their A Level studies. In our recent ISI Inspection, the inspectors commented on the girls’ “outstanding attitudes to learning” and I am delighted to see the girls’ commitment to their learning justly rewarded. The inspectors also noted that the girls excel in their extra-curricular activities; ensuring that the girls can balance their academic studies with their extra-curricular activities is something which we pride ourselves on at St Mary’s. Girls have achieved amazing things in so many areas – from riding for Great Britain, swimming the English Channel, singing in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and recording their own professional music CDs, to exhibiting their artwork in London galleries and treading the boards at the Edinburgh Fringe. I wish the girls the very best as they leave Calne to begin the next, exciting stage of their education.”