Students and staff at The John Fisher School are celebrating another year of strong success with their A Level and BTEC results despite changes to the examination system. This year’s results end two years of hard work and commitment, which is reflected in 45% A*-B grades, 76% A*-C grades with a pass rate of 99% at grades A*-E at A-level. There was also an impressive number of Distinction and Distinction* grades awarded in our BTEC Business, ICT and Sports courses. The school secured 38% A*-A grades to include BTEC accreditations. We are delighted that Year 13 students have overcome the upheaval of the reforms introduced by the government and still secured places at excellent universities throughout the country, including Oxbridge and Russell Group institutions. Changes to the examination system meant that A-levels are being decided by students sitting final examinations at the end of two year courses rather than throughout.

Whilst there are many notable success stories amongst these results, special mention must be made of these students: John De Zoysa who achieved 3 A* grades and will be going on to study Engineering at the University of Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall College; Niall Jukes (1 A*, 2 A’s) who will be studying Geography at the University of Bristol and Fergus Campbell (3 A’s) who will also be attending the University of Bristol to study Veterinary Science. Other superb performances included Zander Archer who achieved 1 A* and 2 A’s who will be studying Physics at the University of Surrey; Charlton De Souza (3 A’s) who will study Economics at the University of Birmingham and Jonathan Selwyn (1 A*, 1 Distinction*, 1 B) who will also be attending the University of Birmingham to study Civil Engineering.  Four students gained all Distinction grades at BTEC (Oscar Halfacre, Kadesh Lennon, Joe Marshall and Ben Shirley), four students secured a combination of Distinction and Distinction* grades (Jordan Marshall, Thomas McKinnon-Dibley, Luca Risolino and Sean Utulu) and special mention must be made of the following seven students who gained all Distinction* grades: Matthew Davis, Charlie Devlin, Akeem Eubank-Anderson, Joseph Halfacre, Inman Hayden, Loic Loddo, Jack McGowan and Kieran Wright.

Headteacher Mr McCullagh said: “Thanks to their effort, the dedication of the staff and the support of our parents/carers; the whole John Fisher community is able to congratulate this Year group on their fantastic achievements. A move away from modular examinations and coursework inevitably can present challenges to both students and teachers. I am therefore particularly proud that the results across our A-level and BTEC subject areas remain strong even though the students had to sit new, untested qualifications in so many of their courses. Our percentage of A-B grades in Economics, History, Music, Art and Design is excellent and for A* grades to be awarded at A-level in Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Design and Technology is superb. Our A*-C grades in Business Studies, Chemistry, English Literature, Geography, Media and Psychology are also very pleasing considering the level of difficulty of many of the new specifications. These results mean that our students will access the top universities in England. For those who choose not to go to university these results will also give them many other valuable opportunities. Several students  for example, will be taking up apprenticeships with leading finance companies in the City. Our Sixth Form is tremendously important to us as a school and during this summer break we have been continuing to improve our facilities. The fact Ofsted judged the Sixth Form ‘Outstanding’ in their last inspection, that our academic outcomes remain consistently strong and the breadth of our excurricular programme make our Sixth Form an excellent place to study. We would encourage prospective students to attend our Sixth Form Open Evening on Thursday 2nd November to find out more about what we can offer.”

The Governors would like to congratulate all the staff and parents/carers for their hard work; they are proud of the A-level and BTEC achievements of our students, who have maintained the high standards set at the school in recent years. The John Fisher School community wish the Year 13 students every success in their future endeavours.