Birkenhead School flying the flag for Modern Languages
Press Release
In the face of national worries about a decline in Modern Languages, Birkenhead
School has bucked the trend with exceptional results in French, German and
Spanish. Four pupils starred by achieving one of the top five marks nationally.
In French, out of 138508 candidates, William Woods, 16 of Prenton, and
William Gwyn, 16 of Neston, both achieved this distinction.
William Woods (with 11 GCSEs, 10 at A*) achieved the double by being amongst
the top five scorers in German as well (out of 53512 candidates)! In Spanish
Jonathan Steel, 16 of Neston, was in the top five out of 36741 candidates.
Headmaster
John Clark congratulated all four of them, commenting that with 73% A* grades in
German, 35% in French and 25% in Spanish, the School is delighted with its
candidates’ performances.
“The number of candidates achieving A* grades in all
subjects has increased impressively, by far more than any national trend might
suggest and well over a quarter of students have achieved 9 or more A* or A
grades. They and their teachers deserve our congratulations for the hard work
and commitment which this requires. This was the first year in which
almost all our students have taken ten GCSEs and they have
risen to the challenge admirably
.”
Overall, 23.8 % of passes were at A*, up 3% on last year
(compared to the national increase of 0.3%). This improvement in top grades was
also evident in this year’s A level results where the number of A grades
increased by a quarter to 47.8%.
.Results Summary
- 23.8% of the 646 subjects taken were awarded A* and 55.1% A* or A.
- 97% of pupils gained 5 or more passes at grades A* to C
- 20 pupils gained 9 or more A* or A grades
For a summary of results by subject and pictures taken on results day see below. Amongst those who deserve particular congratulations are the following:
Having achieved 9 or more A* or A Grades in their GCSE subjects:
 | Gregg Baxter | |
| Paul Beckett | |
| James Boumphrey | |
| Sebastian Gollins | |
| Alastair Greenfield | |
| William Gwyn | |
| Stephen Hughes | |
| Martin Ince | |
| Samuel Jones | |
| Steven Kingam | |
| Jonathan Lawrence | |
| Christopher Littler | |
| David Parkes | |
| James Smye | |
| Nicholas Speechley | |
| Johnson Ta | |
| Edward Tam | |
| Ian Tam | |
| Adam White | |
| William Woods |
The Results
|
SUBJECT |
ENTRIES |
A* |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
|
Art |
19 |
3 |
6 |
7 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
|
Biology |
57 |
7 |
23 |
13 |
14 |
0 |
0 |
|
Chemistry |
57 |
16 |
19 |
18 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
|
Technology |
34 |
6 |
10 |
8 |
7 |
3 |
0 |
|
English Literature |
65 |
11 |
16 |
17 |
12 |
9 |
0 |
|
English |
66 |
9 |
22 |
23 |
11 |
1 |
0 |
|
French |
66 |
23 |
15 |
13 |
11 |
4 |
0 |
|
Geography |
32 |
8 |
11 |
5 |
6 |
2 |
0 |
|
Greek |
5 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
German |
11 |
8 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
History |
45 |
6 |
22 |
11 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
|
Latin |
18 |
9 |
5 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
Maths |
66 |
21 |
16 |
23 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
|
Physics |
57 |
19 |
20 |
13 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
|
Religious Studies |
6 |
0 |
4 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Science |
18 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
|
Spanish |
24 |
6 |
7 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
0 |
|
TOTALS |
646 |
154 |
202 |
167 |
99 |
23 |
1 |
|
Cumulative % |
|
23.8 |
55.1 |
81.0 |
96.3 |
99.8 |
100.0 |
