A vital part of our education is non-academic. It is about understanding what we are and the world we live in. It is about finding a positive identity for ourselves and learning to exist within the community with tolerance and respect for others.
This learning process is not always an easy one and sometimes help and advice is needed. For this reason all the staff at the school have a responsibility to give personal and social guidance to students or, in other words, to provide student welfare support.
If you have a problem, don’t hesitate to share it with one of your teachers. We all experience personal difficulties sometimes and talking them through often helps. Should the need arise, it is usually best to choose someone who you know well and able to speak to freely. This could be any member of staff but most often it will be your tutor.
The tutor’s role is to look after the personal and academic welfare of every member of the tutor group. Their aim is to get to know the students well and to give them encouragement and support in all areas of their school life. If things are going wrong, they will play an active part in trying to put them right. If things are going well, they will be pleased and proud of the student's achievements. Above all, the tutor will take a particular interest in the students and what they do and they will be at the front line of all communication.
The form tutor also has specific responsibility for teaching the Personal, Social and Health Education programme and for one-to-one academic mentoring for each student in the tutor group.
The school enjoys the services of a qualified and experienced counsellor, who is in the secondary school four days a week. Students who wish to discuss any issues with the counsellor on a confidential basis can either contact the counsellor directly or ask a teacher to make an appointment for him/her.
Further information about the service offered is available from the school.
To help us to efficiently reach our expectation that all students should realise their full potential and, if possible, even more, we collect and use data analysed by the Durham University CEM Centre testing as follows:
Performance Indicators
Year 7 - MidYis
(Middle Years Information System)
Year 10 - Yellis
(Year 11 Information System)
Year 11 - Yellis+
Year 12 - Alis
(A Level Information System)
The fundamental aim of these tests is to look at learned behaviour that predicts future learning. They provide individual students feedback that helps us to know each student more thoroughly.
When we combine the data that these tests produce with our own, on-going records, we will be better placed to:
Identify strengths and weaknesses
More accurately predict achievement at KS 3, 4 and Sixth Form
Advise on subject choices (GCSE & A-Level)
Advise on University Courses
We welcome your feedback about this regular approach to reporting and ask that you read the Student Personal Organiser for details of the various grades.
Terminal Tests & Examinations
Year 11
GSCE / IGCSE
Year 12
AS Level (A Level)
Year 13
A2 Level (A Level)
In several subjects we have organised year groups into sets of similar ability. This is a very efficient way to encourage students to become more confident within a subject by working at the level appropriate to their ability. By doing this we hope to enable them to achieve their full potential. Movement within and across sets is always available according to performance.
External exam results at both GCSE and A Level were again very pleasing this summer. There were some outstanding results from our highest achieving students and, overall, results once again showed a significant improvement from 2009. I would like to congratulate all the students who achieved these results and to thank all the teachers at the Secondary Campus for their hard work in preparing our students for these exams.
A Level At A Level once again, 69% of all entries were at grades A*, A or B. This is in line with last year's results where the same percentage of students achieved an A or B grade. Only once before have our Upper Sixth students achieved higher than this. The % entry at A*/B is commonly used to rank schools' A Level performance in the UK. This year, we are also delighted to announce that 100% of our students achieved a pass grade at A Level, an increase from 97% in 2009.
We had several students whose results are outstanding including 1 student who achieved 3A* grades (a new top grade introduced this year for those students who performed at the very highest level of an A grade), 1 student who achieved 2A* and 2A grades,2 students who achieved 2A* and 1 A grades, 2 students who achieved 2 A* grades, 1 student who achieved 1A* and 3A grades,3 students who achieved 1A* and 2A grades and 2 students who achieved 3A grades.
GCSE At GCSE Level, our students have achieved the best ever set of results for the school. 62% of all entries were at A* or A.This was again a significant increase from 2009 (48%) and beats the previous best score of 52% A*/A of the 2005 cohort. 97% of all entries were at grade C or better and 100% of students passed 5 or more GCSE at grade C or higher.The % A/A* as well as the % students passing 5 or more GCSE at grade C are the two commonly used figures to ank GCSE results.
From our 99 students in Year 11, 22 students got 5 or more A* grades in their results and 20 students got a clean sweep of A* or A. As at A Level, there were some outstanding individual results, including 1 student, who passed all 12 of his GCSEs at grade A*. He was closely followed by other students, 1 who achieved 10A*, 2 who achieved 9A*, who achieved 8A* and 7 who achieved 7A* grades. Whilst we of course congratulate these students, we also congratulate those whose results, although they may not have achieved so many A*s, reflect outstanding endeavour in their exams.
In addition to our Year 11 students, several Year 9 and 10 students took some GCSEs early and they all scored either an A* or an A grade.
Our 2010 examination students deserve hearty congratulations on their achievements and we would like to wish all of them every success in the future.
Full details are given in the link tables below. Please note that all data is given to the nearest % point and any apparent discrepancy in calculations is due to this rounding.
Nick Lee Assistant Principal-Curriculum
GCSE
The table below shows recent performance.
* Please note that all data is rounded to the nearest whole %
A Level
The table below shows recent performance.
The DfEE has produced a superb book "Learning Journey - A Parent's" guide to secondary school curriculum? (ISBN 1841853356). Web site edition available at: http://www.parents.dfee.gov.uk
Information about National Curriculum Levels and much, much more is available at: http://www.qca.org.uk
The world's largest provider of international qualifications for 14-19 year olds. Visit their website at: http://www.cie.org.uk/
the largest of the three English exam boards, awarding 49% of full course GCSEs and 42% of A-levels nationally. Visit their website at: http://www.aqa.org.uk/over/index.php
