St Mary's School Calne

Excellent GCSE results

Our girls recorded another set of impressive GCSE results today (Thursday).  With half the year group gaining all A*-A grades these results are some of the best the school has ever seen.  A third of the year group gained 8 or more A*s, almost two-thirds gained at least 8 A*-A grades and 8% gained all A* grades. These excellent results reflect the hard work and dedication of our students and teachers.

In contrast to the current national decline in numbers taking languages, St Mary’s, like other girls’ schools, has had continued success in the uptake of languages.  Every girl studied one or more language and nearly a quarter studied two languages gaining 40% of the grades at A*.  A quarter of the year group received their results last year and all gained A*.  Over a third of St Mary’s current Year 10 have taken languages early and two-thirds of the grades awarded were A*, with one girl coming within the top 10 candidates in the country.  “As a linguist myself, I believe that studying languages will offer many opportunities in our increasingly globalised world” commented Headmistress, Dr Helen Wright.

St Mary’s believes in teaching girls according to their ability and potential, not their age. Its emphasis is always on the individual and the success of its personalised approach to the curriculum has been proven, not only in languages, but also in Drama and Maths.  Nearly a fifth of the girls in Year 11 took AS Drama and gained an A grade. Two girls impressively sat one half of their AS Maths units early and achieved full marks.

Following the girls’ successful language results and building upon the excellent A Level results in Maths and Science last week, we are delighted that we will be working with local state school pupils over the next few years.  As part of an Independent State Schools Partnership (ISSP) scheme established in order to raise aspirations and levels of achievement in Modern Languages, Maths and Science, we will be encouraging able young people from all walks of life to aim for university education. 

Dr Wright is delighted with the all of the girls’ achievements:  “Every girl can be justifiably proud of her results and this provides an excellent foundation for the next exciting phase of her education”.