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Sunny outlook for Rossall A-level students (from front):
Swie Joo Liem of Thornton;
Toby Holder-Williams of Rossall; Alice Jackson of Blackpool and Jake Gartside of Poulton
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A* INCREASES FOR ROSSALL SCHOOL
More students achieved the A* and A grades in this year’s A-levels at Rossall. Overall, the school has recorded 92% of students achieving A*-E grades; one percent down on last year’s performance. However, the plus side is an increase in the number of students attaining the highest A* grade, which has risen from 7% to 10%.
Also on the increase is the number of students achieving A*-A grades. The number has risen from 28% in 2010 to 36% this year, and is viewed as an excellent achievement for a non-selective school, which in stark contrast to many state and independents, encourages students of all abilities to sit the exams of their choice, without cherry-picking students to take only those subjects in which they have a stronger than average chance of success.
Boarding pupil, Cherry Zhu, was a star performer this year, recording 5 A* passes in Maths, Further Maths, Economics, Physics and Chinese. And, her excellent results have earned the Chinese born student a place at the London School of Economics. For a number of local pupils the future is equally bright, with many attaining A* and A passes in core subjects to earn them some of the scarce university places available to students in the UK.
One of the top performers was Swie Joo Liem, 18, of Thornton, who achieved 3 A’s in English, Maths and Music, plus a B grade in Philosophy, which she hopes to study at Edinburgh. Her case was cemented further this morning when she learned that she’s also attained a D3 grade Pre-U in Philosophy, which is valued equivalent to an A* pass at A-level.
Swie Joo, who has attended Rossall for 15 years, is thrilled at the prospect of university. She commented: “I’m not taking a gap year, and that’s not because I’m worried about tuition fee increases, but because I can’t wait to get started on my Philosophy degree. I’m going to be sorry to leave Rossall though because I’ve been here most of my life, so tonight’s celebrations with my friends at school will be tinged with a little sadness.”
Rounding off her year as girls’ school captain, Alice Jackson, 18, of Blackpool, gained an A in RS, and 2 B grades in Geography and PE, which are enough to get her into Leeds Metropolitan University where she’ll study for a PE degree, prior to a career in teaching. Another long-term student of Rossall, Alice joined the school 11 years ago. She’s a sports fanatic and plays centre half for Blackpool Ladies football team. And, to use a well-worn football cliché, Alice is “over the moon” with her results.
An A*, A and B in Art, English and History will set, Toby Holder-Williams, 18, of Rossall on the road to Lancaster University and a degree in History, before embarking on a career in the British military. Toby, who is the son of Rossall’s art teacher, Sarah Holder-Williams, is the last of three brothers to graduate from Rossall sixth form and admits to a little sibling rivalry when comes to Art. He commented: “My older brothers, Charles and Guy, both studied here and we had a bet to see who could get the best grade in Art, because mum teaches it. I’ve just won with an A*, so I’ll be calling in the bet when I phone them both later today, which should pay for my night celebrating the results with all my friends from Rossall.”
A student with designs on a creative career is Jake Gartside, 18, of Poulton, who proved that you can still achieve your dream without A grades. The student, who joined Rossall 12 years ago, knew the grades needed to get his first choice university place at Huddersfield, where he’ll study product design. However, his 3 ‘B’s and one C grade have left him “speechless.”
Commenting on this year’s A-level results, Rossall School’s Director of Studies, Gillian Pryor said: “We are delighted to have recorded significant increases in the numbers of students achieving A* and A grades and this is testament to some hard work from our A-Level students. And, although at 92%, we are fractionally down on last year’s A-E figure, we are still pleased with the sterling efforts of staff and students, many of whom have achieved excellent results whilst managing to balance study with a full programme of extra-curricular activity, so this is particularly gratifying.
“It is also interesting, but not unexpected to note that students this year are, in the main, opting to go straight to university, rather than take a gap year, which points to some concerns on their part to avoid the increases in tuition fees proposed for 2012.”
The full results are:
ROSSALL SCHOOL A-LEVELS 2011
Five passes
C Zhu
Four passes
V Avagyan, M Chen, B Lau, S Liem, A Nguyen, S Sloane.
Three passes
C Baxter, C Chen, N Do, M Duongova, E Feng, S Fraser, J Gartside, T Holder-Williams, J Huynh, A Jackson, S Jones, E Kelley, N Lau, H Le, T Lester, K Leung, A Lewis, I Li, S Markbride, J McIntyre, C Metcalfe, M Nguyen, L Nguyenova, A Pham, H Rimmer, S Roschinger, J Schofield, E Taylor, H Tran, M Tranova, K Tung, I Vo Le, C Vu, Z Vu Hoang, J Whiting, J Worsley, T Wu, V Xu, T N Zielinsky.
Two passes
M Giangova, J Hough, C Nguyen, N Nguyen, A Parfenova, S Rao.
One Pass
J Strottmann, P Purva
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