Students celebrate A-Level results

Students at Rochdale's Sixth Form colleges celebrated their A-Level results today (Thursday 14 August), in what was another successful year for the town.

Nerves were running high as students received the much anticipated results after two years of hard work, but for the vast majority their results met and in many cases exceeded their expectations.

Rochdale Council Executive Director for education, Terry Piggott, said: “I am pleased that in the period between the Rochdale Sixth Form College being agreed and it actually opening for business, numbers of students and results are holding up in the school sixth forms. In 2008 there were 179 candidates, up from 166 in 2007. The average point score per entry also increased fractionally.”

Across the borough more than 300 students were given their results today at Rochdale's five sixth form colleges; Wardle, St Cuthbert's, Oulder Hill, Hopwood Hall and Cardinal Langley.

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen said: “I am pleased that we saw an increase in the quality of our results. This bodes well and shows that our Local Education Authority is gaining momentum in the run up to our new sixth form college. I would like to praise Terry Piggott and his team alongside all the staff who have made this possible.

"These are exciting times for our students and I am confident that our new facilities both in the heart of Rochdale and Hopwood Hall will see not just an increase in the quality of results but also an increase in the number of students taking their A-Levels in this Borough.”

Among the town's top performers was Jennie Hudson at Hopwood Hall, who gave birth to her son, Riley Power, just eight days ago. Having secured B grades in Health & Social Care and Psychology, and a C in Sociology, she hopes to start a Psychology course at Bolton University in February.

Jennie said: "I'm very pleased with my results and now I'm looking forward to university. I know it will be hard with the baby, but I was determined to get my A-level results and now I'm determined to get my degree for him."

Overall, Hopwood's A-Level students achieved a 92% pass rate, a significant increase on last year, with 46% achieving A-C grades.

Another top performer, Natalie Botrel, said: "I got A's in Psychology and General Studies, a B in Sociology and a D in Business Studies and now I'm going to study Fashion and Textiles at Manchester University. I'm very pleased and Hopwood was a great place to study, I've enjoyed my two years here."

Of the 51 candidates at Oulder Hill, there were 26 Grade A passes, with an average score per exam entry of 180. More than 90% of the year 13 students will be continuing their education having achieved some excellent results.

Saad Malik and Abid Javed were both amongst the top ten students in the country in their A2 Urdu Edexcel exam out of 649 students.

Mr. Duffy, Deputy Head teacher at oulder Hill, said: “We are very proud, not only of Saad and Abid, but of all our students who have worked hard this year and achieved some great results. We are very pleased with our post-16 results and look forward to improving further again next year with our new cohort of year 12 students and those going into year 13."

Other top performers at Oulder Hill were Vikki Thompson (2 A's and 1 C), Carl Naven (3 B's), Saad Malik (4 A's), Natalie Power (2 A's and 1 B) and Li-Ling Cheung (3 B's).

At St Cuthbert's there were 20 passes at grade A and a 100% pass rate across all subjects. The school had an average points score per entry of 175 from the 62 students that sat A-Levels this year.

Deputy Head Cath Livesey said: “We’ve got some impressive results with some outstanding individual performances. The results are due to the excellent hard work of both the students and the staff, and as always we have had wonderful support from parents. These results also reflect the continuing trend of improvement and achievement at St. Cuthberts.”

Wardle students enjoyed another successful year with 18 passes at Grade A and the highest average points score in Rochdale at 192.

Head of Wardle Sixth Form, Tony Shaw said: “We’re pleased that we’re close to sustaining our high standards, and we’re pleased for our students who have secured a place at their university of choice.”

Exams officer for Wardle, Louise Meredith said: “They’ve all done better than their estimated grades, so they’ve exceeded expectations, and it’s been a pleasure to administer these exams, where there have been no problems.”

Two of Wardle's top achievers, Laura Monroe (4 A's) and Ben Sanderson (3 A's and 1 C) will be heading to Univeristy in September, to York and Manchester respectively.

At Cardinal Langley, almost all subjects achieved a 100% pass rate, with 27% of students achieving higher than their Government predicted targets and overall in excess of 60% of the students matched or bettered their target levels.

Assistant Headteacher Mr Howard Meredith said: "This illustrates how our township of Middleton is able to provide top quality A-Level education.

"Although we are a Catholic school, we are particularly proud of our ability to welcome and integrate students of hugely differing backgrounds. This year's intake included students from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and the Philippines. We also have two students with severe physical disabilities who, within our community, have received the kind of quality support which has enabled them to achieve highly, beating their official targets.

"We are confident that we will be celebrating even stronger results next year."

One of the school's top performers, Francesca Hateley, who is going on to study Secondary Education and Maths at Cumbria Univeristy, said: "I'm extremely pleased to get to Uni and want to thank my teachers for helping me pass. I've had such a
positive experience at Cardinal Langley."

Rochdale Council's Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families, Councillor Irene Davidson, had the final say on Rochdale's A Level results. She said: “I congratulate these young people on their results, the teachers who have guided them and their families who have supported them.”

Download