Pupil and Teacher joy at GCSE results

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Rochdale school children, teachers and parents celebrated today following the release of GCSE results. Schools boroughwide were pleased with their pupil’s achievements and as per usual, results day threw up more than its fair share of remarkable stories. Rochdale Online was on hand as pupils collected their results and gather the reactions of various pupils and schools.

One of the first schools to react to their results was Beech House. Kevin Sartain, head teacher of the Manchester Road private school, told Rochdale Online: “We’re very pleased, especially with some of our younger students. A lot of year 9 students have taken their English, Maths and Science GCSEs and achieved A grades so that’s great for them and for the school.

“A special mention must go to year 11 student Nancy Wright, who achieved a string of A and A star grades.”

Staff at Falinge Park High School were similarly pleased with their pupil’s achievements as they announced a significant improvement on last year’s grades. Helen Casey, the Teaching and Learning Support Officer at the school, said: All of the staff are very happy. There is a definite improvement on last year and apparently we are the joint first ‘most improved school’ in Rochdale.

Rochdale Online was at Falinge to take photos of the happy students, with outstanding performances from Abdul Mubin, Suzanne Cachia, James Campbell and Suzanne Booth as they achieved A* to C grades in all of their exams.

Possibly the most remarkable story of the day came at Springhill High School. Whilst the increase of A and A* grades from 3 1/2% last year to nearly 5% makes for excellent reading in itself, the achievements of one student, Wendy Animashaun, are particularly outstanding. African student Wendy has only been at the school for 18 months after moving from Germany and she achieved 12 A* to C grades – not bad, when you consider that English is Wendy’s third choice language.

Exam Officer John Buchanon continued the story: “Wendy is delighted. She received a letter today from [exam board] AQA to announce that she had achieved one of the top five marks in the country in German. All I can say to Wendy is well done. It’s a superb effort!”

Further stories of remarkable achievement came from Hopwood Hall College, where three mature students got the grades they needed to go into further education next year.

20 year old Christy Sweeney was delighted to learn that she had gained 3 grade B’s and two grade C’s on her Access Level 2 course (GCSEs) at Hopwood Hall College. Becoming a mum at 16, Christy left Broad Oak High School in Bury with no qualifications and decided to come back to College to get the grades she missed out on first time around. She achieved B’s in Maths, Psychology and English Literature and C’s in English Language and Science. In September Christy is returning to Hopwood to do the Access Level 3 course and hopes to gain the A Levels she needs to send her off to University.

Christy said: “I haven’t been off the phone all morning, trying to get hold of my family to tell them how I got on. They are all really proud of me and what I have achieved. Now my little girl is in nursery it has given me the chance to come back to College and pursue my dreams. Next year I will be studying Life Science, Business, IT and Psychology at A Level and am really looking forward to it. Getting these grades has given me the inspiration to go on and do even better.”

Dawn Trotter achieved GCSE grade A in Psychology, B’s in English Language and Science, and C’s in Maths and Law. Dawn who is 33, decided to return to learning when she was made redundant from her job. She says:

“It turned out that being made redundant was the push I needed to get me back into education. I had always wanted to do my GCSEs but when the mortgage needs paying and you have other responsibilities there never seems to be a right time. I thought I wanted to be a midwife before I started my course, but now I feel I have learnt more about myself and have decided I would like to go to University to study Criminology.

"My husband is really proud of me and has supported me all the way through. I have worked part time as a domestic supervisor for the NHS in the evenings whilst I have been a student, so I have found a way to manage work and studying. There is always a way to make it work if you want something enough."

Middleton mum of four Joanne Archer was on top of the world this GCSE results day when she learned she had achieved grade B’s in Psychology, Sociology and History, a C in Law and a D in Science on her Access Level 2 course.

Joanne says: “I am addicted to studying and often used to stay up until one in the morning just so I could put the extra effort in to my work when the kids were in bed. I have absolutely loved coming to College and I am the only one of my seven brothers and sisters to have gained any qualifications. Some people think it is a waste of time and qualifications are just bits of paper, but I think that having an education gives you the credibility to stand up and get your voice heard.

"I have learnt so much at College, I can’t believe that I have achieved so much in such a short space of time. I have made friends and have felt really supported by my tutors. Now I would like to go on to be a teacher or a child psychologist after I have gained my A Levels, which is what I am about to start doing at Hopwood in September.”

Click the link below for the Council view of this year's GCSE results and for a full list of pupil results, by school, in PDF format:

• GCSE record results repeated...