Dorothy Stringer School has reported GCSE results that compared well with four years ago – before the coronavirus pandemic.
The comparison with 2019 has been made because the government switched from independent marking to teacher-assessed grades in 2020 and 2021 when exams were cancelled.
The government said: “There has been a return to pre-pandemic grading in England this summer, with grading protection in place to recognise the disruption that students have faced.
“This means that allowances have been made where national performance is weaker than before the pandemic.
“This has been part of a two-year, two-step plan to return to normal grading arrangements after the pandemic.”
The school said: “We are delighted with the outcomes for all of our students who demonstrated an improvement on results from 2019 – the last set of GCSEs performed using the same grading criteria.
“Students demonstrated their resilience and commitment with an outstanding set of attainment and progress results.
“Despite the widely publicised drop in grades this year to bring exams back in line with pre-covid grading, Dorothy Stringer students’ results were strong.”
The school said that “attainment 8”, the measure which takes into account a range of eight GCSEs, is 53.74, up slightly from 53.69 in 2019, meaning that students, on average, gained a grade 5.
The proportion of students achieving a grade 5 or higher in both English and maths has increased to 61 per cent this year, up from 59 per cent in 2019.
The proportion of students achieving a grade 5 or higher in maths went up from 63 per cent in 2019 to 70 per cent.
The proportion achieving at least a grade 4 – a standard pass equivalent to a C – totalled 87 per cent this year.
English results remained strong, with 74 per cent achieving a grade 5 or above, down from 77 per cent. The proportion awarded a grade 4 or above totalled 86 per cent.
Just under half (47 per cent) of students achieved a full English Baccalaureate – or EBacc – suite of subjects (English, maths, two sciences, a humanity and a language).
