Exam successes in Gosport and Fareham
By Connor Steel / Photograph from BBC News
STUDENTS across both boroughs finally learned their next steps after A-Level and GCSE results were released this week – coming one week earlier than in previous years and ending a turbulent 18 months of education that saw exams cancelled for the second straight year.
But widespread successes was the buzzword as students celebrated their personal results, which coincided with many organised prom events across the area this week.
With exams cancelled, all grades were marked using teachers feedback; calculated using evidence from mock exams, course work and tests. This was a method that caused chaos in summer 2020, but this year seems to have been a lot simpler; despite questions on whether the grades ‘were too easy’ to achieve given the lack of physical exams since 2019.
But these questions won’t matter to the thousands of students receiving their results in our area this week, seeing hard work and effort rewarded in the toughest of times. A-level results were first to be released on Tuesday morning, with both Fareham College and St Vincent’s (Gosport) reporting high rates of success including record breaking pass rates across the board.
Fareham College reported that Level Three and A-Level results had an outstanding pass rate of 99.4 percent combined, with over fifty percent of students achieving the highest grade possible.
Down the road at St Vincent’s College, Gosport, it was similarly successful as students gained a perfect 100 percent pass rate at Level Three Vocational / BTEC Studies. A-Level results were also passed with flying colours with an 98 percent pass rate, with most students now moving onto university courses across the UK.
Although Bay House Sixth Form College A-Level / Level Three results haven’t been released yet, it is believed that they have beaten their 2020 pass rates and will follow the national picture of slight increases; which seems to have replicated in the GCSE results that were released on Thursday morning.
Again data is slowly being released from schools and colleges across both boroughs with an update due shortly, but it appears that Gosport and Fareham based students have seen a rise in pass rates; this incudes figures of those with at least grade 4 and above under recent marking changes (Formerly A*-C) and students achieving places at college seems to have risen as a result.
Director of Bay House and Brune Park academy cohort GFM Geoff Walls confirmed the good news for students, putting his congratulations on records to everybody involved in the 2021 exam process.
He said in an interview: “We are really pleased with the efforts of this cohort of students. They have worked really hard through some really challenging times and they have got the results that they deserved. It’s been a real challenge for staff as well.
“We are really pleased with the way that they responded with the challenges of working through the pandemic and we are happy with the outcome today.”
