GCSE results - The news from the schools

Photo: Daryl Thorpe

Siddal Moor pupils Michael Kozla, Jonathan Dermoldy, Daniel Forster and Robert Leyden are pleased with their results.

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After Rochdale achieved its best ever set of GCSE results, Rochdale Online can  reveal how each school performed and bring you some of the many success stories from across the town.

Nerves were running high as the pupils collected their results but there were many cries of excitement once the envelopes were open and Rochdale Online's photographers were on hand to capture the emotion.

News from the schools 

Wardle High School

Results improved at Wardle by 10% and the school exceeded its key targets. Almost 60% of students acquired five GCSEs at a level of C or above, and for nearly 52% of the students those five GCSEs included English and Maths. Nearly 10% of all students achieved an A* in Maths, but there were good performances elsewhere including English and Science.

Headteacher Graham Wright said: "This was above the national averages for last year, and must make us amongst some of the top performers in Rochdale.

"The key to the success was the attitude of the students and the support given by staff and parents. They were a great year group with a very positive attitude towards wanting to pass examinations, and this has been reflected in the best examination results that the school has seen for many years."

Matthew Moss High School

A spokesperson for Matthew Moss said: "There have been excellent results from Matthew Moss High School students who can be justifiably proud. Especially pleasing is the proportion of students who achieved 5 A*-C including English and Maths, which, at 53%, is very strong indeed. Notable performances included that of Shauni Adekoya who achieved 9 A* grades and one A."

Falinge Park High School

Falinge Park High School was celebrating the fourth successive rise in examination results. A technical hitch on the exam data feed from the DCSF has meant that the school still awaits a few of its results. However, the results at the moment have already beaten the 50% of 2007/8.

Headteacher Robin Lonsdale said: “We are still awaiting our Key Stage 3 English results but Mathematics and Science at this level, and a record set of GCSE results again, certainly bode well for the future here."

“Even with some missing results it is clearly a bumper year. There are marked increases in the performance of our boys in particular and our results at five A*-C, and five A*-G are all up. Until the missing results come in we can only speculate by how much. However I would want to congratulate all concerned as this clearly endorsed the schools summer term OFSTED which returned a Grade 2 - good overall."

Boys have closed the gap on girls performance and English and Mathematics remain strong. One student, Azeefa Khan, got 14 A*- C, seven pupils earned 13 A*- C, six 12 A*-C and fifteen 11 A*-C.

Mr Lonsdale continued: "Many students must be congratulated on overcoming real difficulties to get their own personal best even though they may not have been so dramatic.

"The bad news – those in the next Year 11 will be expected to break records again for the 5th year!"

St Cuthbert's RC High School

Headteacher Mr Wood said: "We are very pleased that St. Cuthbert’s has once again achieved its best ever GCSE results. 64% of our students achieved five or more GCSEs at C and above, (51% of the cohort achieved five including Maths and English). 

"This now means five years of steady progress where results have gone up consistently. There have been outstanding performances from many students reflecting their hard work over the year. We are delighted for all our pupils, their families and staff, who worked hard to bring about this success. Taken together with our performance at A level, St.
Cuthbert's has had its best ever year."

Springhill High School

Results have gone up by 14% this year from 53% up to 67%. The top performers from the school include:

Tahiba Begum who achieved 13A’s including 5A*
Rahila Kausar who achieved 11A’s including 6A*
Kiran Pervez who achieved 11A’s including 4A*
Saima Kauser who achieved 10A’s including 7A*
Hennah Ashfaq who achieved 11A’s including 3A*
Amber Ali who achieved 10A’s including 1A*
Aisha Zaib who achieved 9A’s including 1A*

Twins Nabeel and Adeel Mahmood achieved 22 GCSEs between them, including 14A’s.
Multi linguist Kiran Pervez achieved an A* in both Italian and Urdu and was the success story of the applied science course. She joined Springhill late in year 9 just before the course began, in the end she gained the first distinction in BTEC science which is worth two A*. Springhill is the first and only school in Rochdale to offer the BTEC diploma in
applied science. It has been incredibly successful with 96% of students achieving at least an equivalent of two GCSE’s at grade C.

Cardinal Langley 

Cardinal Langley's Year 11 students have excelled themselves by beating the record GCSE performance of 2007. The 'Class of 2008' has set three new all time records for the school. The first record is that 125 students, almost 70% of them, have obtained five or more passes at Grades A*-C. The second record is that 99 students, almost 55%, have obtained eight or more passes at this standard. The third record is that 36 students (20%) have obtained five or more passes at Grades A*/A.

Assistant Headteacher Howard Meredith said: "This outstanding success builds on our good news from the A Level results last week.

"Some of our students have performed 'out of their socks', beating their official government targets by one grade in many cases and in some cases even three grades.

"We were delighted to have a great working relationship with the 'Class of 2008', which had a real sense of community and co-operation. So the congratulations must be shared equally between the students and the staff for a great job done. Many of them will stay on to study for A Levels or Diplomas in Middleton, where they can expect to do very well in the new M6 partnership between our three high schools.

"Wherever they go they will always be special to us and so we wish them all every success for a happy future."

Holy Family High School (Heywood)

Head Teacher Sue Casey said: "We are absolutely delighted with the results and the hard work put in by the students and the teachers and extremely please with the cohort. As The first year of Holy Family to complete their GCSEs, they have set the precedent and beaten all standards and have done absolutely tremendously."

"Also the group of year tens who have passed their GCSE in English in this first year is fantastic and I am very proud."

Deputy Head Mr Coyle said: "The School's results were 65% of pupils getting five or more A* to C’s, which is great. We smashed national averages and have beaten targets set by FAMILY Fisher Trust (F.F.T) and got 100% in A’s to G results in the year.

"We are very proud and glad we have done well and the students have done well and hope to continue this great success."

Hopwood Hall College

Hopwood Hall has enjoyed another successful year, with many mature students re-sitting their GCSEs and performing exceptionally well.

One of the star performers was Suzanne Baker, who got Bs in English and History and a C in Sociology. She said: "It's been a really enjoyable experience at Hopwood. It's been a journey of ups and downs so I'm quite emotional now. It was hard work juggling family life and college life but I think I've handled it really well." 

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