“We are delighted that our biggest ever cohort of 300 students has produced our best ever GCSE results as a school.

Students have performed very well at all levels of ability. As a comprehensive school, we are delighted to have seen so many students from different backgrounds achieving so well, including our disadvantaged students, and we look forward to seeing progress measures being released in due course. We have seen very strong performance at the top end with 101 grade 9s awarded (up from 35 in 2019) and 204 grade 8s awarded (up from 116 in 2019). 49.5% of students achieved a grade 5 or better in English and Maths, 66% achieved at least 5 grade 4s including English and Maths, whilst the average points score of 4.86 was the best ever achieved. These results reflect both great teaching on a daily basis and the impact of our ‘Aim Higher’ sessions which students attend voluntarily after school.

There were some standout individual performances from many Stratford students, with our highest attainers being Isabella Toovey, Carmina Clifford, Darcy Chapman, Alicia Jarosz, Sid Doughty, Pippa Tilley, Kharis Sivayogan and Jess Moore.

However, it is important that students make excellent progress from their respective starting points, regardless of their ability on intake and it is lovely to see so many students achieving grades to be proud of. Carmina Clifford, Amanda Kempson, Jamie Fountoukdis, Phoebe Castle, Rejan Cota, Alicia Jarosz, Rosie Jacques, Jessie Wallace and Amelia Hartley made the most progress from KS2-4 and should be particularly congratulated on their achievements.

As a school we are proud to offer students an impressive choice of 31 different subjects to study to examination at the age of 16. The new government have recently announced a curriculum and assessment review which hopefully will lead to a healthier balance of subjects being studied by young people in a lot of schools. The EBacc should be scrapped and more done to promote the importance of subjects that have been previously sidelined, particularly those in the creative arts and design technology. Many newspaper headlines focus on successful individuals, whilst the sad truth is that, in reality, nationally, our educational system leaves a third of young people feeling that they have fallen short. The quotas of grades awarded mean that one third of young people nationally leave secondary school without a standard pass in GCSE English and Maths. Indeed, students are then expected to retake these qualifications in post-16 education, where most of them again struggle to pass. Meeting the needs of the so-called ‘Forgotten Third’ needs to be a key feature of the curriculum and assessment review.

So many students deserve great credit for all they have achieved, as do the members of staff and families who have supported them throughout the last 5 years, the pandemic and beyond. We wish every one of our students the very best for the future and look forward to welcoming record numbers of them back into the Sixth Form, alongside students from other local schools who have also been enroling online today”.

Neil Wallace

Headteacher