Over 700,000 school pupils collected their GCSE results last Thursday. The percentage of pupils achieving a C grade or above saw the sharpest decline since the exams were launched in 1988. The number of students gaining A*-C grades dropped 2.1 percentage points to 66.9 per cent, following a rush by 17-year-olds to resit English and maths.
However, the grade outcomes of 16-year-olds also declined, with A* grades falling 0.1 per cent, grades A* to A declining by 0.6 percentage points, and grades A* to C dropping 1.3 percentage points.
Meanwhile Asian pupils seem to have continued to do well compared to their cohort. Pupils from The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School celebrated their best GCSE examination results to date. With 73% of all grades being an A* and 95.4% being A*-A, this is a truly exceptional set of results and marks a new level of excellence for the School. A record 35 boys achieved 10 A* grades or more and 127 students achieved straight A*s-A.
Hard work, dedication and enjoyment of learning is clearly evident for both pupils and dedicated staff in these superb results.
These successes are reflected across the academic spectrum from 100% A*-A in Mathematics to 99.4% in English Language. Pleasingly the school’s STEM subjects continue to achieve the highest levels of excellence with 92% A* in Physics, 86% A* in Chemistry, 79% A* and 94% A*-A in Biology. These terrific results bode well for the engineers and medics of the future. Humanities and Modern Foreign Languages continue to enjoy outstanding successes and the breadth of the curriculum is demonstrated in Italian, Music, Physical Education, Classical Greek, and D&T Graphic Products all achieving 100% A*-A grades.
Dillan Parmar, who received 10 A*s, said: “I’m ecstatic with my results. Thanks to my teachers and also to my peers – we’ve built up a great camaraderie, especially within our form class. We all help each other and it’s great.”
Aditya Dabral, who achieved 9 A*s and 2 As, added: “I’m delighted and I’m glad that all my friends also did really well. I took an extra GCSE, in Hinduism, and it was great as I received one of my A*s in this. Habs were very supportive of me taking my Hinduism course and even let me sit one of my exams at school.”
Abhiram Bibekar, who received 10 A*s, said: “I am definitely very happy with these results and I’m very proud to be part of this year group, which has achieved the best ever results on record at Habs.”
Schools in Manchester also celebrated outstanding GCSE results. GCSE results at schools throughout the city saw a significant improvement from last year in the number of pupils achieving the all important A*-C grades in the key subjects of maths and English, with nearly 56 per cent of pupils achieving this benchmark.
At Parrs Wood High School in Didsbury the school was celebrating its best ever results and has over the last few years seen its results consistently improve.
Results were also up this year at Abraham Moss High School with particular successes including student Aarij Elahi who achieved 9 A* and 1A, and Mohamed Ben Al Fakih who got 7 A* and 3A grades.
At Whalley Range High School for Girls in south Manchester, one student, Amina Hameed was celebrating a clutch of A* and A grades, including a much coveted top grade A^ (A 'hat') in Further Maths. She achieved 10 A* grades and 1 A in addition to her outstanding result in Further Maths.
Also in south Manchester at Levenshulme High School for Girls, Alina Imran achieved 7A* 1A, and Sidra Hussain got 5A* and 3A, whilst classmate Nahrin Raza achieved 5A* and 4A grades.
