GCSE passes slump as thousands forced
Film star gets a C in drama
GCSE exam successes have slumped to their lowest level for almost 10 years, results revealed yesterday.
The fall was blamed on reforms by Michael Gove while Education Secretary which forced pupils who failed core subjects last year to resit them.
The percentage of pupils achieving a C or above – considered a “good pass” – has fallen to 66.9 per cent, the lowest since 2008.
The number of pupils achieving the top marks, Grade A and A*, is also at its lowest since 2007.
Mr Gove’s reform means 16-year-olds taking maths and English who obtain only a D have to resit them at 17 or even 18 until they obtain at least a C grade.
A record number of over-16s took resits this summer.
With the older students removed from the totals, the number of students achieving A* to C grades was down just 1.3 per cent.
Ambition
Teachers also blamed the poor results on the Government’s English Baccalaureate, which measures state-funded schools’ performances based on students’ achievements in traditional academic subjects, such as history and geography.
But School Standards Minister Nick Gibb defended the focus on core academic subjects.
He insisted that they gave students “a wider range of opportunities”.
He said: “The hard work and determination of hundreds of thousands of 16-year-olds will be rewarded today as they collect their GCSE results.
“These are qualifications that are the gateway to the next stage of their education.
“We want to make our country a place where there is no limit on anyone’s ambition or what they can achieve.
“That is why we are working to ensure there are even more highquality schools in every part of the country. And for those 17-yearolds THE schoolgirl star of the new Swallows and Amazons film said she was “really happy” after getting seven GCSEs – despite only managing a C grade in drama.
Seren Hawkes, 16, who goes to St John’s College, in Southsea, Portsmouth, achieved an A in PE, two Bs in English language and literature and three C grades in French, maths and science.
Seren plays Nancy, leader of the Amazons, in the film about children on a Lakeland sailing adventure. She said: “I’m really happy with my results. Doing GCSE drama really who have struggled to achieve good grades in maths, we are seeing 4,000 more successful re-takes of those exams.
“This is delivering better prospects for every one of those young people.”
Girls continued to outperform helped me get the role.” Also, the daughter of BBC Proms presenter and Strictly star Katie Derham achieved a string of top GCSE results.
Natasha Vincent, 16, picked up three A*s and six As from independent school Brighton College and called her mother, who was filming Proms Extra.
Natasha said: “She was thrilled for me, she was really excited.”
Others celebrating yesterday included the pupils of independent Withington Girls’ School in Manchester who achieved a 95 per cent pass rate at A* or A. boys in the majority of subjects, according to the figures, published by the Joint Council for Qualifications.
They also outstripped boys in achieving the top grades, with 7.9 per cent getting an A*, compared with five per cent of boys.