Wellington School students are to be congratulated after gaining outstanding A level results. For the second year in a row, 19% of grades were awarded the elusive A* grade, comparable with the most academic schools in the country.
Nearly a third of students gained A grades in 3, 4 or 5 subjects and 41% of grades were awarded A*-A grade enabling students to meet the challenging offers that were set by universities. Top performers were Ling Gu and Lorinda Guo (4A*s), Owen Mears (3A*s), Edwin Chan (3A*, 2As); Toby Duggan, John Chen, Robin Fieldhouse, Paulo Schiavone, Meng Ge, and Susie Duan all gained at least 2A*s.
Milverton’s Owen Mears did particularly well, scoring 100% in 6 out of the 8 modules he sat this summer to secure his place to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford. During the year, he also played the lead, John Proctor, in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible – a remarkable achievement.
Headmaster, Martin Reader commented: ‘we are very proud indeed of the success of the entire year group with 75% gaining A*-B and 91% of the leavers gaining C or above, equalling previous records. They and their teachers worked incredibly hard.’
Martin Reader commented: ‘the story in the national media is that students are taking ‘tougher’ subjects such as Maths and Physics. This is certainly true at Wellington with over half of the cohort taking Maths and over a third Physics. 36% of grades were awarded an A* in Maths and 30% an A* in Physics."
However, he was particularly pleased with success in a range of subjects. Art, Business Studies, Classical Civilization, Latin, French, Maths, Further Maths and Physics gained between 20% and 60% A*.
‘Since curriculum 2000, we have seen a number of students take a fourth A level in a contrasting discipline to complement their other subjects. It was a joy to see Owen Mears and Edwin Chan, who lives in Wellington, who were studying predominantly science subjects, gain 400/400 in Art this year. It is sad that such breadth is likely to suffer in the A level reform.’
’I am really delighted with the performance of this year group: they continually exceeded the expectations of their academic profile. They were particularly committed both to their activities and to each other and set a wonderful tone for the younger pupils who really looked up to them.’