Rochdale achieves best GCSE results yet

Reporter: Jan Harwood & Katie Hill
Date online: 23/08/2007

Year 11 school leavers celebrated across the borough today when they opened the envelopes to reveal their GCSE results. Council officials were full of praise for the youngsters, their parents and teachers as the town achieved its highest ever results. "The results this year are exceptionally good and are by far the highest ever", said Rochdale Council’s Executive Director for children, schools and families, Terry Piggott. Read on for Rochdale Online’s in-depth account of Rochdale schools results.

Mr Piggott continued: "The results are up from last year by over 5%. The teachers and pupils at all Rochdale schools have obviously worked very hard and deserve congratualtion."

The Council’s Cabinet Member for children, schools and families, Councillor Irene Davidson said: "Congratulations to the young people of Rochdale for all their hard work in achieving such good results. Thanks also to the parents and the teachers for their support. I am very proud of the town today!"

"As a council were are not resting on our laurels in terms of education and there is a fair way to go yet but I would like to thank the young people and parents of this borough for getting us off to such a good start."

The News from the Schools

St Cuthberts RC High School

Headteacher Mr Wood commented: "This is our best year ever in terms of GCSE results and I could not be more proud. We have achieved 53% A*-C grades out of our 254 entries which is our highest result yet. All students seem to be very happy with their results and as usual we have had several outstanding performances."

Among the outstanding performers were Kelly McLawrence, who achieved 3A*s, 6As and a B and Nathan Collingwood who achieved 3 A*s 6As and a C. The school’s top achiever was James Handley who achieved 7A*s and 4As. He said: "I am really pleased with myself and did not expect to achieve such high grades."

Another student who was thrilled with her results was Grace Weetman, who had achieved 3As 7Bs and 2Cs. Grace said: "I am really excited, all of my hard work has paid off and I am looking forward to starting in the Sixth Form in September."

Balderstone Technology College

The excitement was also apparent at Balderstone Technology College this morning, where Hassana Afzal was top of the class achieving 2A*s 6As and a B, and had collected her results this morning with her proud parents, and after realising her success shed tears of joy.

Helen Heyes, head of Key Stage 4 at the school, commented: "The majority are really pleased; there have been lots of solid sets of results and as always we have had a few sets that have really stood out, such as Hassana’s.

"As well as this, many pupils have really shined in terms of progression, such as a handful which came to us knowing no or very little English and have gained a GCSE in the subject. Some of the lower grades are just as much of an achievement as the A*s."

Springhill High School

At Springhill High School, the results were the best ever.

Deputy Head John Buchanan said: "Overall the school achieved 53% A*-C, an improvement from 40% last year and the first time ever we have had above 50%."

Austin Shelmerdine, head of key stage 4 at the school, commented "Most of the students have received the results that they have been aiming for. We have had some marvellous successes including two pupils whose results were among the top 5 in the country in Urdu [Sana Masood amp; Nawazish Khan]."

Other noteable performances were those of Farva Javed, who achieved 2 A*s, 6As and 2 Bs, and Zai Javaid, who only moved to the UK two years ago, and has managed to gain 5 A*-Cs. He commented: "I feel that I’ve done very well considering that two years ago I couldn’t speak a word of English. After trying my best I have been rewarded with these results."

Beech House

There were outstanding results at Beech House School, where the 5 A*-C percentage stood at 78.5%. Margaret White, the school’s deputy-head said: "There have been some wonderful results, everyone here at Beech House is highly delighted. We have also had five Year 10 pupils taking the exams a year early and they have all achieved 5 or more A*-Cs."

Hollingworth High School

There were some fantastic performances at Hollingworth High School where 70.5% of students achieved 5 or more A*-Cs. Head-teacher Colin Burnett commented: "I am absolutely thrilled with the results, as are the vast majority of students. It is through their hard work, perseverance and can-do attitude that they have achieved the results they wanted. This year we have achieved record results and over 100 pupils achieved 10 or more A*-Cs, which is fantastic news. I am very grateful for the support from parents, governors and teachers who have all contributed to this years success."

Hopwood Hall College

At Hopwood Hall College, five mature students had come back to college and studied an Access Level 2 Course, whereby they can sit 4 or 5 GCSE’s. All five achieved grades between A*-C and were very pleased with their results and are returning to the college to do the Access Level 3 Course and hope to then go on to university.

Cardinal Langley RC High School

There was an exciting atmosphere at Cardinal Langley RC High School, whose head-teacher Colin Mason commented: "We’ve had an excellent set of results which have exceeded all expectations. All of our students have done really well, if not better!"

Oulder Hill Community School amp; Language College

There were many smiling faces at Oulder Hill Community School when this year's GCSE results were released.

The school has again achieved over 50% 5 A*-C including English and Maths. Two students, Jennifer Green and Samuel Tosh have scored in the top five marks of the whole country in PE. Jennifer has also scored in the tope five for Double Award Science (out of nearly 215,000 candidates nationwide) and achieved an A at A/S Level in both Physics and Maths.

Headteacher, Mrs Margaret Dudley, said: "I would like to congratulate all the students on their results and the staff of the school look forward to continuing to work with them in Year 12 and 13. These results reflect the commitment and hard work of students and staff and the support of parents."

Falinge Park High School

Falinge Park celebrated its fourth successive rise in GCSE results, breaking the 50% A*-C barrier and almost doubling its results since 2004. Behind these figures are some fine individual performances.

Shazad Aqababaei came to school from the Middle East speaking almost no English three years ago. She has thrown herself into her studies to such an extent that she has gained A grades in Art amp; Design and Persian, a B in Maths and Cs in Dual Award Science and Statistics.

Sally Dearden, ex Shawclough Primary School pupil, scooped an impressive eleven A*-Cs and Guy Davies from Meanwood CP gained ten.

Headteacher Robin Lonsdale said: "Schools do not make these sort of gains without a real joint effort. I would like to thank our families and pupils for their hard work and of course the apparelled commitment of our staff here, many of whom have their own children in this year group. I can ask nothing more except of course for even better results next year! I believe that we are proving to be a school that lives up to its motto 'Pride in Excellence'."