Wellington School pupils are to be congratulated for their excellent performance in this year’s GCSE examinations. 29 year 11 pupils, nearly a third of the year group gained 8 or more A*s and As with 49% of marks gaining A* or A, almost 28% above the national average. Set against a national background of falling grades, Wellington students’ performance across all measures show an improvement this year on last.
Headmaster, Martin Reader commented that ‘we tend to focus on the highest achievers, but with every pupil taking at least 10 subjects there were over 1000 entries in this sitting. The fact that 94% of grades were C and above demonstrates how hard the entire year worked: we must not forget how difficult it is to juggle so many subjects at once.’
In addition to these students, for the last three years, the School has taught a cohort of 15 overseas students each of whom takes five or six GCSES in just one year. This year group broke all records, with 62% of grades at A or A*.
In what has been called a ‘turbulent year’ for GCSE results all our native English speakers gained at least a C grade in English and all students passed Maths. Over 60% of grades in Art, Biology, Greek, Latin, Maths, Physics and Religious Studies were at A or A*.
Wellington students also buck national trends in Classics, with nearly a quarter taking Latin and a further 20 students taking Classical Civilisation. On top of their other subjects, eight students took Classical Greek for one lunchtime per week for two years. Six of them gained an A*. In all over 100 students gained a public qualification in a classical subject this year.
The top performers were Alice Cambridge, Konrad Suchodolski (11A*s), Eduard Arakelyan (10A* and 1A) Twearly Peaster (9A*s and 2As) Katie Gerasmidis (8A* and 2 A grades),Charlotte Chapman, Charlotte Kerr, Tom Le Neve Foster, Sam Peel (7A*s and 3 or 4As)
Jade Clarke, pictured, from Plymtree, who gained 5A*s amongst her string of A grades, did so whilst also managing a heavy sporting schedule: Jade fences for England and Great Britain and won a bronze medal in the UK Youth Championships.
Martin Reader comments that ‘this year group was extremely committed to all they did at school with significant success in sport, music, drama and the CCF. Many of them have been at school since Reception and the school is very proud of all their contributions.’