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23 August 2018
Girls at Headington are celebrating strings of 9s, 8s and 7s alongside their A*s and As as more of the GCSE exams move over to the new grading system.
With the bulk of the exams sat at Headington moving over to the 9-1 system, nearly a third of the qualifications taken under the new specifications were graded at 9, the highest possible level. One girl, Megan, achieved an A^ in her Further Mathematics GCSE, described by the exam board as an A* with distinction. She was also one of 18 girls at Headington who achieved the equivalent of ten or more 8s or above. The proportion of all exams taken graded at the equivalent of 8 or above was 57.9 per cent while 83.7 per cent were at a 7 or equivalent or higher and an impressive 50 girls achieved 10 7s or above.
In our Year of STEM, there were excellent results in STEM related subjects, with 93.9 per cent achieving 7,8 or 9 in Chemistry, 82.7 per cent in Physics and 92.3 per cent achieving A, A* – and in one case A^ – in Further Mathematics. There were also fantastic results in both English Language and English Literature, with 90.2 per cent and 92.9 per cent at 7 or above respectively.
Izzy  was one of the 18 girls at Headington who achieved 10 or more 8s or higher.
She said: “I am very happy but a bit overwhelmed – I wasn’t expecting it!” She will study A Levels in Art, French, History and Maths at Headington and is considering a career in architecture.”
Lexi also achieved 10 or more 8s or above – but decided to check her results at home first. She said: “I’m still shaking a bit – it’s definitely better than I expected.”
Headington Chemistry teacher Sallie Campbell was back again a week after celebrating daughter Phoebe’s A Level results to congratulate younger daughter Martha on a string of excellent GCSEs. She joked: “Next year we’ve got a year off – no results!”
Headmistress Caroline Jordan said: “This year’s results have been something of a challenge to interpret, with most of our girls having a mixture of letters and numbers to make sense of.
“We have expressed concerns in the past about the extra pressure some pupils will put themselves under to achieve the new 9 grades. We have considered it really important to ensure that they recognise they should not be expecting all 9s, rather striving for one or two in their very best subjects as a true mark of distinction.Â
“We have made sure our girls have had plenty of support in achieving a reasonable balance between study, home life and relaxation and are delighted to see so many of them achieving amazing results.”
