A Level Grades Buck National Trend

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Students increase tally of top grades this summer

While the proportion of top grades fell by 0.3 per cent across the rest of the country, in Wandsworth, results rose by 0.6 per cent.

In total 26.1 per cent of all the exams taken in the borough achieved an A or A*star pass – the highest possible scores.
Chestnut Grove (up 7.7 per cent), Saint Cecilia's (up 5.9 per cent) and ARK Putney Academy (up 4.7 per cent) all recorded substantial increases in the proportion of A* and A grades from 2012.

The top performing school was Graveney, whose pupils achieved 121 A* passes.

The improvement in the number of borough students achieving Grades A* to C also rose at a higher rate than the national average. In Wandsworth, scores rose by 3.2 per cent compared to a rise nationally of 0.6 per cent.

Saint Cecilia's achieved a pass rate of 87 per cent for grades A* to C, up 13 points from the previous year.

Battersea Park showed a substantial increase in grades A* to C, up 25.9 per cent, while Chestnut Grove’s score rose by 9.5 points with Burntwood up by five per cent.
The picture was the same for passes of all grades between A* and E. In Wandsworth the overall pass rate rose by 0.4 per cent, compared to 0.1 per cent in the rest of the country.

Students also scored highly in the vocational courses that are alternatives to A Levels.
Chestnut Grove, Ernest Bevin, ARK Putney and Southfields all had considerable numbers of pupils achieving a Level Three BTEC.

At Chestnut Grove, 64 per cent of entries and 63.8 per cent of those at Southfields were awarded a distinction - the equivalent of an A* or A grade.

ARK Putney (60 per cent) and Ernest Bevin (56 per cent) also achieved very good levels of distinction grades.

Schools spokesman Cllr Kathy Tracey said: “I would like to offer my congratulations to all our students who have performed so well in this year’s tests. These are fantastic results and testament to all the hard work and effort put in by pupils and their teachers.

She continued: "I am particularly pleased to note that while the rest of the country has seen a drop in the number of top grades awarded, in Wandsworth they have risen quite substantially. This shows the very high quality of teaching and learning at the borough’s schools. However, we will not be resting on our laurels. We are determined to continue raising standards in all our schools.”

According to education standards watchdog Ofsted, Wandsworth is home to some of the best schools in the country.

The education standards watchdog has rated 92 per cent of the borough’s schools good or outstanding. This score covers the borough’s 78 primary, secondary and special schools.

In comparison only an average of 74 per cent of schools in other parts of the country and 80 per cent in London have been found to be good or outstanding by Ofsted inspectors. The results place Wandsworth in the top eight of high performing local authorities in the country.

August 20, 2013