St Swithun’s pupils achieve academic personal bests

28 Aug 2012

Pupils at St Swithun’s School have again achieved excellent A-level results this year, especially in subjects often considered more difficult such as chemistry, biology and maths (coincidentally also the most popular A level subjects). Over three quarters of entries were graded A* or A for chemistry, just under 90% for maths and an extraordinary 95% for biology. Furthermore, Kate Tindale from Ropley achieved full marks (600 out of 600) in her chemistry A level.

Overall 28% of entries were awarded an A* grade compared with 7.9% nationally and 74.7% of entries were awarded A* or A.

On an individual basis, 8 girls were awarded three A*s or better and over half of the upper sixth (55%) were awarded three A grades or better (compared with the 2011 independent sector figure of 31.8%).

Three girls – Kate Tindale, Natalie Yip and Jacqueline Lau – achieved four A* grades with Jacqueline gaining another A grade in addition.

Religion, philosophy and ethics, Greek, German, food technology, music and theatre studies all had an impressive 100% of candidates achieving all A* and A grades while a further seven subjects had 100% of candidates achieving all A*-B grades.

The girls are now looking forward to university where courses such as medicine, law, languages, history, architecture, physics, geography, politics and economics will be followed at a range of different institutions such as Warwick, Exeter, Bristol, UCL, York, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge.

This year in addition fourteen girls took the demanding Extended Project Qualification which is highly regarded by universities. Perhaps the most ambitious project was completed by Charly Capon from Sarisbury Green who indulged her passion for boats by researching, designing and manufacturing a racing sail. Ten of the girls achieved an A or A* grade.

“These excellent results reflect the determination of our pupils and the encouragement and dedication of our teachers” said Jane Gandee, Headmistress of St Swithun’s.

“I have been particularly pleased to see the way in which the girls have combined their academic studies with a range of other activities both at St Swithun’s and beyond the school gates. We urge all our pupils to look beyond the straitjacket of the public exams specifications, and with this in mind we are introducing Stretch, a challenging enrichment program for all pupils, from September.”

Photo: Charly Capon with her Extended Project Qualification racing sail