CITY GCSE RESULTS ARE ON THE RISE
GCSE pupils in Cardiff had plenty of reason to smile yesterday – as the city recorded a rise in the proportion of pupils achieving at least five A* to C grades.
A total of 3,145 students sat their exams in Cardiff’s schools this summer, with 72.5% gaining at least five A* to C grades, compared to 69.9% last year.
And 93.9% achieved five A* to G grades, compared to 93.2% last year.
Sarah Merry, Cardiff council’s cabinet member for education, said: “Congratulations to everyone who collected their GCSE results this year.
“It is a significant milestone in the lives of our children and young people, marking the culmination of many years of hard work.
“I wish all the students every success in the future, as they move on to further education, employment or training.
“Education is a key priority for the city and it is encouraging to see the continued improvement in education standards in Cardiff.
“In 2013, less than half of our students sitting their GCSEs reached the key Level 2+ standard [at least five A* to C grades, including maths and English or Welsh].
“Today that proportion stands at 60% and the underlying trend suggests the significant and sustained improvement we have seen over the last five years will continue.”
A new set of GCSE qualifications in Wales for mathematics, numeracy, English language, Welsh language, English literature and Welsh literature, along with new rules for reporting school performance measures were introduced in 2017.
Across Wales, figures published by the WJEC showed 61.6% of students achieved grades A*-C across all subjects, compared to 62.8% in 2017.
In contrast, across England, Wales and Northern Ireland taken together, the overall pass rate rose by 0.5% to 66.9%.
Despite the dip the proportion of students getting top grades A*-A has increased – from 17.9% to 18.5% this year.
Overall though Wales has recorded its lowest GCSE pass rate for more than a decade after it remained around 66% for a number of years.
At Cantonian High School 59% of pupils achieved GCSE maths with A*-C grades. 58% of pupils got GCSE English language with A*-C grades, a 12% point improvement on last year. The percentage of pupils who achieved five GCSEs A*-C has risen to 61%, while the percentage who achieved five A*-G grades increased slightly to 97%.
Headteacher Diane Gill said: “I am incredibly proud of the achievements of our pupils today. Not only have they achieved some of the highest results under the new key performance indicators introduced last year, they have achieved their own personal targets. This has been possible through their hard work and commitment to their studies during their time at Cantonian and the support from their parents and carers. I would like to take the opportunity to thank our staff for their hard work and dedication which has enabled Cantonian High School to secure these excellent results.”
Over a third of students at Whitchurch High School achieved five or more A or A* grades, with 39 students topping 10 A or A* grades. Overall results are sustained or improved on last year with over 70% getting at least five A*-C grades with English and maths and 85% of students attaining five GCSE or equivalent qualifications, the best in the school’s history.
Retiring headteacher Huw Jones-Williams said: “Congratulations to all our year 11 students on a wonderful set of GCSE results. They and their dedicated hard-working teachers should be so proud as should everyone who has supported our students throughout their school careers.”
At Bishop of Llandaff, 92% students got five or more GCSEs at A*-C, 82% of students achieving five or more A*-C including English language and mathematics, 43% of students achieved five or more A*-A and 33% of the year group achieved nine or A*-A grades across the board.
Headteacher Marc Belli
said: “We are very proud of the achievements of all our students. It is very rewarding to see students meet and exceed their personal targets to achieve results which will remain with them forever. The results achieved by students today and the stunning A-level results last week finish off a very successful year for the school, following our positive inspection visit in the spring.”
All students at Cathays High School achieved five GCSEs at A*-G, 45% of students achieved A*-C and 18% of pupils achieved an A* or A. Headteacher Mrs Stephens said: “It’s the best ever results we’ve had. It’s the highest number of pupils to achieve A and A* grades the school has ever had and two pupils had 11 A* grades. We’ve had the best ever maths and science results and the big thing is every pupil in the school had got five or more GCSE grades. I’m immensely proud of the hard work that all the pupils have put in.”
At Cardiff High School, 88.5% of year 11 students achieved at least five A*-C grades, including English and maths. The same proportion achieved the National Welsh Baccalareate qualification and 46% of pupils achieved at least five A* to A grades including English and maths. 23 students – 10% of the cohort – achieved at least nine top A* grades and no pupil left without at least five qualifications.
Headteacher Stephen Jones said: “We are absolutely delighted with the outstanding performance of our pupils again this year.”
At Radyr Comprehensive School, 79% of pupils achieved five A*-C grades, including English and maths, the number of pupils achieving at least five A* or A grades has increased to 35% and 21 pupils achieved five or more A* grades, with nine achieving nine or more A*s.
Headteacher Andrew Williams said: “We are absolutely over the moon with these results. They are a true reflection of the incredibly hard work of all our staff and students and we are extremely proud of them all.”
Ysgol Plasmawr reported some of the best GCSE results in its 20-year history. 30% of year 11s attained five or more A* and A grades and 87% of the year group got five or more A*- C grades across all subjects.
Headteacher John Hayes said: “A big thank you to all the staff who have worked tirelessly throughout the year in ensuring that our pupils are given every opportunity to succeed.”
Ysgol Glantaf said it was celebrating its best ever set of results, as 88% of all students achieved five A*-C, 100% achieved five A*-G and 49% achieved five A*-A.
Headteacher Alun Davies said: “They reflect the diligence and hard work of both students and staff who are to be congratulated on such excellent outcomes. ”
Year 11 pupils at St Teilo’s got the highest grades in the school’s history across every performance measure.
Almost 70% of students achieved A*-C across English, mathematics and science and 80% achieved the Skills Challenge Certificate at level two. The school said its results make it one of the highest performing in the country when compared to similar schools.
Headteacher Ceri Weatherall said: “These fantastic results are a testimony to the hard work of our brilliant pupils and staff. ”
At the independent Howell’s School, where pupils take England’s GCSEs, the pass rate was 53% at England’s highest two number grades 9-8 – equivalent to Wales’ top A* grade. In total, 63 students sat GCSEs at the school this year.
74% got number grades 9, 8 and 7 – equivalent to A*-A and 90% got number grades 6-9 – equivalent to A*-C. 88% of all science entries were graded 9-8.
Principal Sally Davis said: “These results provide further confirmation, if it were needed, that in an all-girls learning environment, free from gender bias or social pressure from boys, girls thrive in what have been traditionally regarded as maledominated subjects.”
At Cathedral School, 49% of grades were the equivalent of A* or above and 69% of all grades were at A*-A.
Headteacher Clare Sherwood said: “I was absolutely delighted to congratulate the pupils on one of the strongest sets of GCSE results in the school’s history.”
EDUCATION Secretary Kirsty Williams has urged people not to compare this summer’s GCSE results with previous years, or those across the border, because of what she described as a complex set of changes to entry patterns and exam reforms.
She spoke out after the overall fall in Wales’ GCSE pass rate this year for the second year running. The dip in the proportion of teenagers getting five A* to C grades comes despite a rise in England.
Ms Williams said she was confident Wales was on the right path with GCSE reforms, that Wales’ new GCSEs are comparable with those across the UK and that standards have been maintained.
She said a rise in A*s and As awarded for GCSEs to 18.5% should give people confidence.
The Education Secretary warned there was still too much difference in individual school and local authority results and this would be looked at in detail.
There is still too much variation between schools and those which have improved results will be asked to share best practice, she said.
“We should not be making simplistic comparisons because of the changes in the cohort with on going early entry and there are 15 new qualifications being examined for the first time.
“There are lots of things going on which mean we should avoid simplistic comparisons with different year groups because there is so much reform in the system.”
Factors that have affected results include a fall in overall entries, a rise in science GCSE entries and the on-going impact of early entry which the Welsh Government has moved to end.
When looking at results for 16 yearolds only that shows results in English language have been maintained and have risen in maths, the Education Secretary said.
That has not shown up in the overall summer results because some of them took maths and English early aged 15.
There has also been a 50% rise in numbers of pupils taking science GCSEs, which has affected results. Changes to school performance measures mean only GCSE science marks count, not vocational BTEC science qualifications.
“There has been a culture change in
science. We have been very clear to schools that we want as many pupils as possible to have the opportunity to do science GCSEs. We were very concerned previously that too many children did not have that opportunity.”
While there has previously been criticism that Wales does not push its highest achievers enough the rise in top grades showed this was being addressed, she added, but attention must not drift from the lower end of the scale where results for lower achievers have fallen.
“I am constantly looking to see how we can make more improvements. What we need to do is examine very carefully individual school, local education authority and school consortia results so we can dig deeper.”
Citing Cardiff’s Eastern High as one school which has improved results she said she hoped teachers there could share their good practice with others.
“Sharing good practice is key and we want to lessen variation in the system.
“We will analyse ruthlessly these sets of GCSE data to inform us where to go forward so we can drive improvement across the system.
“We want to analyse how individual schools have done and we want to close the attainment gap and have more children getting the grades they need to facilitate their next steps.. We need to make sure the needs of all learners are addressed.”
On Wales’ GCSE reforms she said teachers had worked hard to make the new exams work