Record GCSE Results for King’s Rochester

23 Aug 2018

Pupils at King’s Rochester are celebrating outstanding GCSE results today made especially pleasing in light of the move towards more rigorous courses and a new grading system. A record 26% of all grades are at A* /9-8, a figure which has doubled since 2012. With 46% of grades at A*-A / 9-7 (only 2% behind last year’s record haul) it is no surprise that many pupils have been rewarded with excellent grades.

The top five performers all gained a clean sweep of A*-A / 9-7 grades and with over 40% of the cohort gaining at least half of their grades at A*-A / 9-7 there were many stories of individual success. Leading grades were attained by Elizaveta Shulgina (11 A*s /9-7), Patrick McCarthy (9 A* / 9-8 and 1 A / 7), Samuel Mutton (9 A* / 9-8 and 1 A / 7), Jadesola Ojedokun (8 A* / 9-8 and 1 A / 7, and Todd Revell (6 A* / 9-8 and 5 A / 7).

Under the new grading system a 7 is equivalent to an A grade with an 8 being the threshold for an A* and a very limited number of top scores being given a 9. A 6 is equivalent to a B grade and the C grade is spread between 4 and 5.

Such successful grades were achieved across all subjects with notable performances coming from English Language where an astonishing 41% of grades were at 9, 65% at 9-8 and 82% at 9-7. The Sciences all performed well with 96% of grades in Chemistry and Physics at A*-B and 64% at A*-A in Biology. Given national concerns over the decline of Modern Foreign Languages, results in German were excellent with 77% A*-A and 93% A*-B. Design Technology scored 55% A*-A and 90% A*-B while in Music 63% of grades were at A*-A and 88% at A*-B including pupils who took their exams a year early. Art also saw fantastic results with 27% at 9, 46% at 9-8 and 91% at 9-6.

Jeremy Walker, Principal of King’s Rochester, commented, “These fantastic results represent an enormous amount of hard work and dedication by pupils and their teachers with great support from their families. I am particularly pleased to see such excellent results in a year of change in education and to see consistent improvements in our academic results in recent years. King’s thrives on the rapport between staff and pupils both in and out of the classroom and we pride ourselves on knowing pupils and their families as individuals. I am particularly pleased that these results have been achieved across all subjects and that they have come alongside the benefits of the much wider education at King’s. Our pupils excel in sport, drama and music among many other enterprises and it is the personal qualities they develop alongside their academic performance which makes them such engaging young men and women with bright futures ahead. Coming on the back of last week’s excellent A Level results it has been a hugely pleasing year and I congratulate all of my colleagues and pupils on their success.”