Students have been confirming plans for their sixth form futures at The King’s Academy after the school in Coulby Newham celebrated its best GCSEs on record.
More students than ever gained high grades with stand-out performances in English, where 80 per cent of students gained at least a grade 4 and four-fifths of these gained at least a grade 5.
In computer science, 85 per cent of students achieved at least grade 7; and 94 per cent of textiles students gained a strong pass.
Many students have chosen to stay on at the academy for sixth form after the disruption of the past two years due to the pandemic, choosing from a range of academic A-Levels and vocational courses including the new advanced professional cookery course.
Principal David Dawes said: “Having faced down the challenges of Year 9 onwards, I want to thank and say well done to our students, their parents and carers and our staff. We are very pleased with this year’s results in what was a really difficult situation.
“We do stress to our students at this stage the importance of making a decision that helps keep their future pathways open and we will continue to support and guide many who are joining us in the sixth form, as well as those who want to come back to us.”
The King’s top student was Sasha Pickard who gained ten grade 9s, closely followed by Charlie Cobain with five grade 9s and four grade 8s.
Noah Simpson, of Coulby Newham, who gained ten GCSEs at grade 7 or higher with 9s in RE, geography, history and biology, said: “It was quite exciting opening the envelope and I didn’t expect to have done that well.”
Joshua Brough and Nicholas Sayer also achieved top results and will stay on for A-Levels at the King’s, Joshua to do maths, physics and chemistry and Nicholas to do maths, further maths, physics and computing.
Sophie Kitching, of Coulby Newham, had praise for her teachers for helping her achieve results that will take her into the sixth form to study A-Levels in biology, history and English literature en route to law. “Home learning was really difficult to get to grips with and my teachers really made it work as well as they could. I really wanted to stay on because of the teachers and everything they did for us,” she said.
Charlie Ayre, of Marton, combined revision and exams with preparation for the cadet European Championships in judo. He travelled to Croatia in June for the competition, coming seventh, which has given him a ranking within the top 40 in the world.
He gained ten GCSEs at grade 6 or higher with grade 9s in English language and business. “During the GCSEs I was training in the morning then coming into school to do my exams. It probably helped me because I felt better by the time I got to school,” he said.
Thomas Marron-Shepherd is continuing his grade 9 success in maths with an A-Level in the subject, along with product design and computer science. He said: “The academy has the best courses for me, and I already know everyone here when we come back in September.”