The French Partner Programme pairs our budding linguists with a student from Lacordaire to whom they write and build a 'pen-friendship'. The pupils from Lacordaire then come to spend a few days in Stratford in March, and now it's the turn of our pupils to visit France. They have travelled to Lille by Eurostar and have spent two days going to school with their pen-friends, joining them in their lessons and finding out the similarities and differences between English and French education systems. The photo shows some of our pupils in s science lesson with their pen-friends.

Following on from the couple of days at school, the group will enjoy two days of trips. The first day is a day for the entire group to do something together and the second, a day when each pupil will enjoy a day with their host family. 

As our Careers Leader, Sarah Miles, explained, "Assessment Centres are a standard part of the selection process for both apprenticeships and graduate training schemes and a day like this is a great way of dispelling any fears around interviews and the idea of completing assessment tasks."

The day was a huge success with students taking part in one to one interviews, desk based prioritisation tasks and presentations. Our thanks to the volunteers from Driving Ambition who gave their time and expertise so generously. 

Deputy Head Teacher Kevin Lister said “This cohort have been remarkable. Their last uninterrupted year at school was their Year 8, so all of their Key Stage 4 studies towards GCSEs and equivalent qualifications have been completed in the shadow of the Covid pandemic. Their Year 9 was truncated by the first national lockdown and they switched to online learning from March through to the end of the academic year. Their Year 10 was also punctuated by lockdowns and isolations. At the start of their Year 11 we were not even sure that their exams would go ahead in 2022. Of course the exams did go ahead, however their preparations, and even the sitting of some of the exams, were still disrupted by Covid isolations of their teachers and of the students themselves.

We are immensely proud of the resilience and adaptability our students have shown throughout their GCSE’s and wish them all the very best going forwards. We are delighted to release what we believe are a very strong set of results to the Class of 2022. They would be a strong set of results even without the Covid disruption, so to deliver these given the backdrop of turmoil that the students have endured is particularly pleasing.

I am also extremely proud of our staff from across the school who once again have given their all to help these students to achieve their best.

It is important to focus on the achievements of this cohort rather than fixate on comparisons with other years so I will not quote many figures. With that said, given the Government’s stated intent of setting grade boundaries this year to deliver pass rates at the midpoint between 2019 and 2021 it is pleasing for the school to have set all-time records for the proportion of students achieving grades 9-7, 9-5 and 9-4 in both English and Maths (13.4%, 47% and 69% respectively).

There were some standout individual performances from many Stratford students. 47% of our cohort secured at least one grade 7 or better. Some of our highest attainers this year were Charles Happel, Liam Browne, Kirusika Sivayogan, Omar Youssef and Lauren Ingram. Charles in particular achieved a remarkable 10 grade 9’s!

As a comprehensive school it is also 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. Omar Youssef, Bianka Pawlowska, Charlotte Phillips, Jacob Golding and Tom Brotherton made the most progress from KS2-4 and should be particularly congratulated on their achievements.

While the exam process was relatively normal for the students receiving their results today their experience of education and preparation over the past years was far from it. Depending on how the coronavirus spread amongst their staff and students even neighboring schools serving similar communities may have had vastly different levels of disruption. Some students will have had teachers absent for extended periods or may have been absent themselves, while others could have maintained 100% attendance. The national average pass rates, which are carefully managed to give the outcomes that the government intend, will likely mask extremely variable results across the country at school and student level. To discuss and compare headline results between schools without understanding the context behind raw numbers would risk drawing misleading conclusions.

The students receiving their results today are now well placed for excellent futures and can hopefully put the turmoil of Covid disruption behind them. They are all now moving on to various courses and apprenticeships. Indeed, we are looking forward to welcoming the majority of our students back to our 6^th form in a few weeks. For those not returning to us we wish them the very best in their studies”

Deputy Head Teacher Kevin Lister said: “We are very proud of all the hard work that our students put into their studies towards their Post-16 qualifications this year. They have achieved extremely well, especially after such a difficult and disrupted start to their 6th Form studies, and we wish them all the very best going forwards.

It is worth remembering that the last time these students had an uninterrupted school year was in 2019 when they were in Year 10. Their Year 11 was cut short in 2020 due to lockdown and they switched attention from completing GCSEs to preparing for Post 16 study. Their Year 12 was disrupted significantly by lockdowns and isolations, with a significant proportion of their learning delivered remotely. Finally, their Year 13, even though it was not impacted by national lockdowns, was still impacted by disruption due to students and staff isolating at various points throughout the year, and extensive uncertainties around whether exams would be cancelled for a third year running. When they finally sat their exams it was a new experience for all of them as they had never sat in an exam hall for such high stakes testing before.The students coped with these challenges admirably and the results they have achieved are something to be truly proud of.

I am also particularly proud of our teachers and wider school staff who have worked tirelessly to ensure so many of our students are able to progress onto higher education, further studies, apprenticeships and the world of work. Our staff put an enormous amount of work into making sure that the students were ready to complete their exams and assessments to the very best of their ability. 

To quote statistics this year would be meaningless as there are no direct comparisons to make. The Department for Education and JCQ have previously announced that national pass rates will be set such that they are between the teacher assessed grades of 2021 and the last fully examined year of 2019. Based on our analysis that appears to be exactly what they have done, with our spread of grades falling squarely between those two years.

We are extremely proud of all our students, but some of our highest achievers this year were:

Twin sisters Lily and Liv Turley who got AAAB and AAB respectively in A levels (4 of them for Lily)

Lucy Wimpenny with A*AB at A-level and an A in EPQ

Libby Jarvis A*AA at A-level

Dan Millard A*AA at A-level

Alex Pester A*AA at A-level (who also made the most progress from GCSE)

Eva Erleckyte AAA at A-level and a B in EPQ

There has been a lot of talk about post pandemic catch up and discussion about students from the Covid years being “behind”. These students aren’t behind, they are exactly where they are supposed to be, in fact they are in the only place they could possibly be given the national context. To define them as behind means they are being measured against a benchmark that they could never have been expected to meet. There should be no caveat or mitigation applied to the achievements of these students today. They have been learning under conditions that no previous students have been expected to, using technologies, and interacting with their teachers in new and unusual ways. They have shown resilience, flexibility and determination in order to complete their studies under such circumstances, and this will stand them in good stead for their futures. The grades awarded today are just as rigorous as in other years and very much to be proud of. It is time now that we move on from the discussion of catch up and gaps in learning for this cohort and allow them to flourish into the fantastic futures that lie ahead of them.”