Gillotts Students Celebrate GCSE Success
Gillotts School students received their GCSE results yesterday. Due to the government cancelling the exams for Year 11s again this year because of disruption to their education caused by Covid-19, the grades were awarded through teacher assessments, against a national standard and approved and awarded by the exam boards.
The government is not publishing performance data for any schools or colleges this year due to the varying impact of the pandemic. Since 2013, Gillotts results have consistently placed the school in the top 25% of schools in the country, in terms of the progress the students make. This year is no exception and indeed builds on the year on year improvement they have seen in recent years. Gillotts School is one of the consistently best performing schools in Oxfordshire.
Gillotts School Headteacher, Catharine Darnton said, “What we celebrate today is the all-round achievement of Year 11 2021. Not only do they leave us with great results, but they have shown themselves to have all the key qualities they need to be successful in their personal and professional lives – kindness, empathy, resilience. These students have faced incredible challenges over Years 10 and 11, with two periods of school closure, periods of self-isolation and the cancellation of their GCSE exams. We were very grateful that we could mark their departure with a Leavers’ Day and that parents have organised a Prom for them, taking place on Monday 16 August. Hopefully we are beginning to return to something more like normality. I know all Year 11 students will join me in thanking the key people who have made these results possible – their parents and their teachers. I thank all the students for their commitment and hard work and I am very proud of all that they have achieved.”
Will Bonser, Rufus Tubb, Georgina Ashby and Katie Langdon were the top four performing Gillotts students. Will gained nine grade 9s and one grade 8, Rufus eight grade 9s, one grade 8, one grade 7, Georgina nine grade 9s and a grade 7 and Katie seven grade 9s, two grade 8s, one grade 7.
Will is going on to study A Levels at The Piggott School in Wargrave in Biology, Chemistry and Maths. Will’s reaction to the results were, “It feels amazing, I’m so happy with them. Last night my family and I celebrated with a meal out on the beach in Frinton on Sea and this morning we’ve had a full English breakfast in a cafe. I’d quite like to go into a science field career, perhaps a surgeon or something else in medicine. I think I’d like to study Biotechnology or Biochemistry at university. It’s been a hard year for the students, studying at home, Will commented, “It was hard. I had to stay self-motivated and I emailed my teachers quite a lot. I’m an interactive student and the emails back and forth really did help me. My family were really supportive too.”
Katie is also going to The Piggott School to study A Levels in English Literature, German and Psychology. Katie said, “I was very surprised with the results. They were somewhere around the predicted grades which weren’t as good as the final results. I’m really grateful to my teachers in such a difficult year. I think I’d like to do something in the psychology field for a career.”
