Windermere School has finished the 2018/19 academic year on a high, with another exceptional set of International Baccalaureate (IB) results.
This year, 34 students sat the IB, achieving a 100% pass rate. The twenty-six IB Diploma candidates achieved a mean score of 33.9 points, the second best result the School has seen in the past eleven years. Put into context, the IB Diploma mean world average in 2018 was 29.8.
26 students who sat the IB Diploma, four will take their place on the School Honours Board with a score of 40 points or more – Agnieszka Pitula (43), Rosemary Lavender (42), and Annabelle Bennett and Margareta Kucinic (40).
The students also secured the School’s second best ever result in the Core, an additional element to the main subjects which is made up of an extended essay of around 4,000 words; the theory of knowledge, which encourages critical thinking; and Creativity, Action, Service (CAS), which encourages students to get involved in a range of activities alongside their academic studies. This year, the mean Core score was 1.88 (out of 3), exceeding the world average in 2018 by 0.66 points.
A further eight students followed the IB Career-related programme, and these results have been the School’s best set of results to date. The IB Career Related Certificate has been designed for career-orientated students, offering them the opportunity to gain a certificate which combines practical and academic skills. All students who took the IB Careers programme obtained at least one distinction, while three students obtained double starred distinctions.
A further two students took individual pathways, one completing two BTEC Level 3 Diplomas and one gaining one BTEC Level 3 Diploma whilst working towards an apprenticeship.
Headmaster, Ian Lavender, was delighted with the results: “This is a superb set of results. This is our eleventh year of IB results and to have achieved a 100% pass rate is remarkable. For a non-selective school to achieve so highly, and in competition with some highly selective and academic schools around the world, is phenomenal.”
On the strength of these results, 85% of the students who applied for university achieved their offers, with 70% securing their first choice university and a further 15% securing their second choice, and this is six weeks before the A-level results are published. Agnieszka Pitula secured her place at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, where she will read Natural Sciences; Rosemary Lavender secured her place at University College London to read English Literature; and Margareta Kucinic secured a place at the University of Glasgow where she will read Electronics and Electrical Engineering.
Many IBCP students successfully secured their first choice university, including Oona Walker who will be attending the University of Manchester to read Management (Marketing) and Hannah Gale, who secured her place at Northumbria University to read Entrepreneurial Business Management. Jack Dickson secured a prestigious position at the National Outdoor Centre, Plas y Brenin in Snowdonia.
Ian Lavender added: “Some students embarked the IB programme with some very modest GCSEs, so this is exceptional and to witness this upward trend in their performance, and that of the school, is life affirming. This is a testament to the dedication and commitment of the staff, and I would like to thank them all for making this happen. None of this would have been possible without a whole school commitment to aspiring to be the best small school in Britain. We have taken a significant step towards this goal this weekend.”