A HEREFORDSHIRE school says it has had some of the best GCSE results it has ever seen after a hard two years.
There were smiles all round at Earl Mortimer College this morning as envelopes were torn open.
The school bucked national trends to record even better results than last year, despite the return of exams for the first time since before the pandemic.
Strong performances were celebrated across all departments, with every single subject seeing an improvement since the last exams in 2019.
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There was also a marked narrowing of the gap in attainment between pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, and those with special educational needs, and their peers.
Principal Alison Banner said today’s results were a reflection of the efforts of pupils and staff alike, through what has been a turbulent few years.
“I did feel quite confident because I know how hard all the staff and the children had worked and I know about all the strategies we put in to support them,” she said.
“We put on extra tutoring, revision skills days, we worked on aspirations for destinations, not just college but onto university, and we employed learning mentors.
“Encouragement was massive among all our staff, it is a school community, it’s a team thing.”
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The highest overall achiever was Emilia Riches with a clean sweep of 10 grade 9s.
“I am so surprised and happy," said Miss Riches.
“I am really happy with computer science, because there were topics in the paper that I hadn’t revised, and French which I had to do at home.
“It was hard work during the pandemic to keep up with the work and not get discouraged, but I’m grateful for the work the effort the teachers put in.”
Miss Riches is going to Hereford Sixth Form to study business, maths, digital media production and computer science.
Ms Banner said seeing the faces of pupils opening such fantastic results made all the hard work worthwhile.
“The atmosphere here today is really positive and friendly," she said.
“There is also the certainty that these were exam grades. The past two years, when grades were decided by teachers, students have picked up on the national rhetoric that they weren’t ‘real’ grades.
“They also may have heard this morning that the national trends are about declining attainment but that’s not the case here.
“They are a lovely year group of students, and I am really proud of them.”
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