Two thousand Brighton and Hove pupils celebrate GCSE results

More than 2,000 youngsters across Brighton and Hove were celebrating their GCSE results today.

Provisional results suggest that more than half of all candidates achieved at least five A* – C grade passes including in maths and English – the government’s benchmark.

The improvement – from 49.1 per cent last year to 52.8 per cent – follows a 4 percentage point rise last year.

The Brighton Aldridge Community Academy – formerly Falmer High School – and Patcham High School showed the best percentage improvements.

Each had a 13 percentage point improvement in the proportion of pupils passing five GCSEs with A* – C grades including maths and English compared with last year.

Dorothy Stringer, which entered the most pupils for the exams with 348 candidates, achieved a 10 percentage point improvement.

Stringer’s 73 per cent performance was the best in the state sector in Brighton and Hove.

It was followed by Cardinal Newman, where the benchmark pass rate rose 7 points from 59 per cent to 66 per cent.

Portslade Community College recorded a 6 point improvement from 35 per cent to 41 per cent and Hove Park notched up 43 per cent, up 2 points on last year.

The benchmark pass rate at Blatchington Mill, last year’s top performing state school in Brighton and Hove, slipped 6 points to 59 per cent.

Varndean slipped 2 points to 56 per cent and Longhill’s 37 per cent was 6 points down on last year.

Councillor Sue Shanks, the Brighton and Hove City Council cabinet member for children and young people, said: “These are good results and I’d like to thank all our teachers and our school advisory team for their hard work and creativity this year.

“We’re clearly moving in the right direction but there is still a way to go before we’re delivering the outstanding education in all our schools that residents deserve.

“I’m pleased to see so many of our schools improving their results, particularly Portslade Community College and Patcham.

“Both have achieved their best ever results and have worked very closely with other schools and our education advisers to achieve this.

“All the schools and the council are committed to working together to achieve that improvement.

“I look forward to seeing our Secondary Commission’s recommendations for further improvement when they are published next month.”

The table below shows the provisional results by school for the percentage of pupils achieving the benchmark five grade A* – C results including maths and English.

At Brighton College 100 per cent of pupils achieved A* – C grades in all their GCSEs, with 90.3 per cent of all grades being A* or A.

Some 89 pupils gained either an A* or A in every subject that they sat and 41 pupils notched up at least eight A* results, with 11 being the highest number.

Head master Richard Cairns said: “Over the last five years we have seen our GCSE grades improve from 64 per cent A* – A to 90 per cent A* – A.

“No other school in England has seen such strides forward.

“It reflects the dedication and enthusiasm of both teachers and pupils as well as our absolute focus on kindness and mutual tolerance.

“Young people who feel valued and supported will always do better than those who are not.”

He added that the results meant that Brighton College was once again in the top 1 per cent of English schools and likely to be the best co-educational school in the UK.

At Brighton and Hove High School 92 per cent of girls gained A* – C grades with 55 per cent achieving A* or A grades.

At Roedean 96 per cent of girls achieved A* – C grades with 64 per cent achieving A* or A grades.