‘It is with enormous pleasure we celebrate our students’ successes today,’ said Mrs Danielle Clarke, Principal of St Joseph’s College Ipswich. ‘Our students deserve to feel proud of their achievements and the hard work that secured them. We expect great things from this year group as they move on to their Sixth Form studies. Today’s empowering results place them in a strong position to embark confidently on their chosen A-levels and vocational courses.’
In English and Mathematics, the number of St Jo’s students achieving Grade 4 and above stood at 92% and 89% respectively, comfortably outstripping the national averages.
For some students nothing less than a Grade 9 would do. St Joseph’s College results included 33% grade 7 to 9 (previously designated (A to A**) and over 8% of all grades were at Grade 9. The top performing subject at GCSE was History, with 50% of candidates achieving Grades 7 – 9. The single sciences also showed strongly. Each returned five Grade 9s.
There were jubilant scenes as the youngsters shared these outstanding results with parents and teachers. As a non-academically selective school, however, it was the high attainment of the cohort overall that was particularly pleasing.
Mr Sacha Cinnamond, Deputy Principal, explained, ‘I tell parents that some students face Grade 4 as their personal Everest, and it is incredibly gratifying to help young people attain and surpass their goals. St Jo’s is proudly non-selective and committed to providing the quality of teaching and the breadth of curriculum necessary to ensure all can flourish.’
That breadth of curriculum was displayed in challenging Maths courses, including Further Maths, Statistics and Additional Maths, and in vocational courses, including Hospitality & Catering, BTEC Engineering and CNAT Creative iMedia. These broadened the opportunities for students, with some providing an additional qualification ahead of A-level, and others offering early footholds on future careers.
The school’s policy of allowing its most able Maths students to sit their GCSE early saw a number of students bagging a top grade a year in advance – thus freeing up time for additional study – and others using it as a staging post on the way to a Grade 9 at the second attempt. As part of St Jo’s efforts to stretch and challenge the most able, seven young mathematicians were entered into the Additional Mathematics qualification, which overlaps the first year of A-level Mathematics in terms of content. These students attained three Grade As (the highest grade available), two Grade Bs and two Grade Cs.
On Results Day we also paid tribute to those students from Years 7-9 who had submitted Further and Higher Project Qualification work. They achieved 100% A-B, an outstanding achievement.
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