GCSE results at Brighton & Hove High GDST saw an increase of 11% in the very top grades (40% of all grades were A*; 8/9) and 60% of all grades are at 7 or above. Headteacher, Jennifer Smith, said, “These are superb results and reflect the enormous amount of work that girls and their teachers have put in over the past two years.
Typically for this time of year, media coverage of our GCSE system has ranged from calls for the exams to be scrapped and debates around the relative difficulty of subjects to complaints about exam board consistency and Ofqual interference. Again this year, parents and students have also had to grapple with the Byzantine complexities of two different grading systems. Amidst all this, it is very easy to forget the individual student behind the results and I’m in full agreement with GSA President, Gwen Byrom, who pointed out this week that the annual rant about GCSEs risks ‘telling our young people that their qualifications are worthless’.
It is therefore important that we let our girls know how much we value their achievements and how proud we are, as teachers, parents and governors, of their commitment to study and their perseverance in pursuing success in what are, by any measure, challenging exams.”
