A-Level students in south Shropshire received those vital exam results yesterday.
Hundreds of young people were delighted to get the important grades to get them into university whilst others, not quite making the grade, were desperately logging on to the UCAS website to find an alternative place.
This year saw the introduction of a new A* grade, superior again to the A grade asked for by universities. To gain an A* students had to score an A overall, plus at least 90 per cent in each of their papers in the second year of their course.
At Ludlow College students and staff celebrated excellent exam results. Acting Principal Jonathan Davis said: “Ludlow College students have performed extremely well this year. We have achieved an overall pass rate of 99.7% and I would particularly like to congratulate those who studied Chemistry, German, Philosophy, Law, Human Biology or Politics as they have achieved an outstanding 100% A-C pass rate.”
“The College saw a total of 74 A or A*s were awarded in A2 papers, and more than half of all the A2 subjects we offer achieved 80% A-C grades.
“I am delighted with all the excellent exam results this year which can be attributed to the hard work of both our staff and students. Well done to you all!” added Mr Davis.
Sarah Godden, acting head of Bishop’s Castle Community College from next month was also delighted as the College achieved a 50 per cent A to C pass rate and overall pass rate of 95 per cent. “I would like to offer my congratulations to students and staff for their good results and hard work. I am looking forward to working with them all.”
Two of the best-performing students were Matthew Owen Hughes who got A*s in English Literature and Geography and Josephine Brown who got As in History and Sociology.
At the private Bedstone College there was another fine set of A level results with 12% of grades being achieved at the new A* level and a total of 35% at either A or A*.
Top students included Bethany Hawksworth-Brookes from Bucknell with 2A* and 2 A grades who is off to Bristol to read Veterinary Science; Jessica Arnold from Aston Munslow who got one A* and 2 A grades and goes on to read Biomedical Sciences at Cardiff and Christopher Nash who got one A*, two A grades and a C grade and goes on to read Law at Cardiff.
“That all of these top grades were achieved in the ‘hard’ subjects of Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics says much for both the school and the candidates,” said headmaster, Michael Symonds.
“This has been a most pleasing and well deserved set of results from a very hard working year group,” he added.