Jubilation At Record GCSE Results

GCSE students at Chew Valley School were jubilant to discover that they had set new records for achievement at the school.

‘We knew that the year group was going to do well, but had not anticipated that they would be record-breakers,’ admitted headteacher, Mark Mallett.

84% of students achieved the old 5A*-C measure and 70% achieved the more recent 5A*-C  including English and Maths.  Both achievements broke previous records at the school.

The latest focus is on performance against the new English Baccalaureate measure which requires students to achieve high passes in two sciences, English, maths, a foreign language and either history or geography.  At Chew Valley this has improved to 36%.

‘A lot of schools and headteachers are calling ‘foul’ on the new measure introduced by Mr Gove.  But we have been saying for a long time at Chew Valley that it has been a national scandal the way that some schools have dropped more difficult subjects such as modern languages, history and so on to promote easier qualifications with dubious equivalence.  At Chew we’ve tried to hold a sensible line between encouraging as many students as possible to keep on with a broad, liberal, academic curriculum including a foreign language, whilst recognising that some students may need to follow a vocational route to achieve success,’ explained Mr Mallett.

‘There have been some outstanding individual performances with A* grades across the piece for very talented youngsters.  But this record year has seen success at every level for our youngsters.  Almost without exception, students have realised their potential.  And that, after all, is our mission – to enable young people to make the very best they can of their secondary education.’