Students at Varndean College have celebrated an impressive set of international baccalaureate (IB) results.
The college said that students at the Brighton sixth form college had produced “another set of outstanding results in one of the world’s most demanding and prestigious pre-university qualifications”.
“Our 51 students achieved an average of 36 points – six points ahead of the world average and a point ahead of the average score of UK private schools,” the college said, “Universities usually regard 36 points equivalent to three A grades at A level.
“Very special mention goes to Jacob Page (ex-Hove Park), who achieved the maximum score of 45 points – something only 157 candidates managed out of more than 70,000 students worldwide.
Jacob is pictured between Odhran O’Donoghue (ex-Chailey) and Olivia Wynne Thomas (ex-Brighton and Hove High).
Odhran, who scored 44 points, has a place to read medicine at Wadham College, Oxford. Olivia also scored 44 and will apply to study history and Politics at Cambridge.
Jacob said: “The IB has been intense, but it’s also been rewarding, interesting and formative. It’s benefited all of us who took it and given us skills in a great range of disciplines.”
Olivia chose the IB because she was “unsure of what kind of career I wanted to pursue and the IB offered the opportunity to study a wider range of subjects”. She said that she was pleased that she had chosen it.
Verity Parkin (ex-Varndean School), Natasha Qvortrup (from Denmark) and Khem Rogaly (ex-Cardinal Newman) scored 43 points.
Verity and Khem are also likely to apply to Cambridge. Sixteen students overall scored 40 points or better, putting them in the top 4 per cent of IB students in the world.
Alys Daniels-Creasy (ex-Dorothy Stringer) is to study sociology at Bristol and Lola Dickinson (ex-Cardinal Newman), who is applying for history at Oxford, achieved 42 points.
IB co-ordinator Sean McEvoy was full of praise for the students’ achievements.
Dr McEvoy said: “It’s been a great pleasure to work with these students. Their desire to learn and to develop as people is quite inspiring and it’s wonderful to see them achieve so much.”
