GCSE results 2020 – City of London Freemen’s School

• 43% of our students were the top grade of 9
• 72% of all grades were 8 or 9 
• 91% of all grades achieved were 7, 8 or 9
• 30% of students gained 10 or more 8 or 9 grades
• 5 students achieved all 9s
• 911 grades were awarded to our GCSE students

In spite of the chaos surrounding GCSE exams this year, students at City of London Freemen’s School in Ashtead once again received outstanding GCSE results. 43% of all grades conferred were graded 9 and 72% of grades achieved were 8 or 9.

Headmaster, Roland Martin, commented, “These GCSE results are outstanding, and our students, staff and parents should rightly be proud of these achievements. We are delighted that 43% of our students were awarded the top grade of 9 and I am delighted that, in spite a very challenging few months, pupils at Freemen’s have done so well.

“I am relieved for young people here, and those across the country, that our Government saw sense and made the decision to allow Centre Assessed Grades to be awarded to our students. I was always confident in the grades we recommended to examination boards and as importantly, I was under no doubt that we had stuck to the guidance to the letter and had not tried to game the system in any way. Colleagues have invested hours of work into providing accurate predictions and rank orders and our processes have been rigorous; above all, we have achieved fair and accurate prediction of performance based on data and information from those closest to the pupils – our teaching staff, who know their charges extremely well. I extend my thanks to colleagues at Freemen’s for delivering a process which has cemented a true reflection of our pupils’ attainment.”

Following the chaos surrounding A Level grades last week, Freemen’s made the unprecedented decision to accept all prospective Sixth Form applicants based on their interviews and predicted grades, rather than waiting for GCSE results to be published.

“Given the outcry following the publication of last week’s A Level results, I took the decision to confirm all conditional offers held by candidates looking to join our Sixth Form as accepted, regardless of the outcome of GCSE results. This was absolutely the right thing to do given the circumstances,” suggested Mr Martin. “At Freemen’s, our screening and interview process for potential Sixth Form students is rigorous and reliable. As an academically selective School with a proven track record in exam success, this demonstrates that as a school leader, I have the utmost faith in our own selection process. So many talented young people have been let down by the events of the last week, that we took matters into our own hands and have accepted all candidates we felt to be of a sufficient standard to study A Levels at Freemen’s regardless of their GCSE results. This decision has removed much of the anguish our applicants were feeling and has enabled talented students make the move to A Level study, based on our rigorous application process alone.”

“Like many school leaders, I am still angered by the way that this year’s examination cohort has been treated when they were already trying to navigate one of the most stressful times of their lives. The fact that the Chair of Ofqual had to be invited by a journalist to apologise for the chaos of the previous week or so emphasises the detachment between those who shape policy decisions that impact young people and those who know them best – in the context of education, their teachers. It has been a very fraught period for students, teachers and school leaders, as well as for parents and families and much of the anxiety could have been avoided by clearer consideration of consequences and more informed decision making.”

Supporting students working remotely during lockdown in maintaining a balance between keeping up with academic studies and emotional and physical wellbeing continues to have been an important part of day-to-day life at Freemen’s.

Students have demonstrated huge courage and determination in the face of the cancellation of their external examinations, having taken full advantage of the Sixth Form bridging courses devised by Freemen’s teaching staff. GCSE students were afforded the opportunity to further develop their studies in their chosen A Level subjects, in order to provide them with a head start on their Sixth Form studies.

Said Philip Woodhouse, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the City of London Freemen’s School “After last week’s record-breaking A Level results it was encouraging to hear more good news this week and to see that the excellent academic standards at the Freemen’s School have been maintained, despite a series of upsets. We appreciate that an enormous amount of effort went into the Sixth Form bridging courses, so that children are best prepared for their futures. My congratulations to students, parents and staff at the School.”

We look forward to welcoming the students back into the Sixth Form at the start of the new academic year, where they will transition to the new state-of-the-art Sixth Form Centre in Main House during the early part of 2021.