Another year of record results at A Level, IB and GCSE
2011 marks the first set of results for a fully co-educational Wellington. We are delighted that our first co-ed cohort have achieved such outstanding results at A Level and GCSE, which make us the leading co-educational large boarding* school in the UK and put us in the top ten of all co-educational schools in the country according to the "Daily Telegraph" league table.
The success of our pupils is all the more impressive given that it has been achieved with a non-selective cohort. It is due not only to our students' hard work and determination, but also to the drive, ambition and imagination of our wonderful teaching staff. Anthony Seldon comments: “Something extraordinary has taken place at this school in the last five years, confounding the critics who doubted that we could introduce a host of radically different ideas without sacrificing premier league academic success. Almost all our high-achieving children are also in the school play or helping us run our education festival, putting hours into their chosen sports or producing brilliant art. We want to give children what they need to have a great life, not just a great job or a place at a great university, and hopefully a happy one.”
Mike Milner, Director of Studies at Wellington, points out that: “the rise in academic achievement has been achieved in a supportive environment emphasising positive psychology and well-being, setting high expectations and emphasising and rewarding effort. These pupils could not have worked harder for this fantastic set of results and represent what can be achieved with great teaching and focused effort. We are very proud of them all. It is now the norm for our pupils to set their sights on Oxbridge, Ivy League, Russell Group and the medical schools, whether they have chosen A levels or the IB.”
GCSE Results
Wellington has achieved its best GCSE results in history, by any measure we can find. There are over two thirds more A* this year than last year, 42% of all grades were an A*. Three quarters (75%) of our grades were at A and A* (compared with 63% last year). 32% of candidates gained straight A/A* grades and 78% achieved 5 or more A or A* grades. 99% of grades were at C or above.
A Level
Our A level results have improved again this year, with nearly a quarter of A level grades marked at A*, and the A*/A grade percentage rising to 66 per cent from 63 per cent. Just over 90 per cent of candidates achieved A and B grades at A level and the UCAS points average rose from 380 to 408. Strikingly, 40 per cent of candidates got either A* or A for all their grades this year, a huge increase from last year’s 25 per cent. **
IB Results
Our IB results have also been impressive. The average International Baccalaureate Diploma mark for Wellington candidates this year was equivalent to one A* and three A grades. This year, only the second year of IB results, nearly a quarter of pupils scored an outstanding 40 points or more, and 40 per cent achieved 38 points or more, which is four times the global average. Almost a third of the pupils, many of them the most able candidates, now sit the International Baccalaureate instead of A levels at the school.
Particular congratulations go to Alex Safarov and Maddie Brown for their astonishing achievements in this year’s exams. Alex, who is Russian, got 6 A* grades at A level, and Maddie scored the maximum 45 points for her International Baccalaureate Diploma, a feat achieved by only one in 500 candidates on average.
* We define "boarding" as a school with the majority of its pupils as boarders! (With 800 full boarders out of 1020, we firmly consider ourselves a large boarding school.)
** As a rider,in The Times league table of Friday 19th Augus, Wtellington appeared with a lowly 80% A*, A and B percentage . This is because they have "converted" our IB Diploma results into A Level equivalents in a way that does not give full credit to the IB scores. They have only counted the "Higher" IB grades, but the IB Diploma is a complete programme. The cherry picking of certain grades out of it has led to Wellington's performance being depressed, relative to schools that do not do IB and given a very misleading representation of our pupils' performance. It goes without saying that of our competitor schools in the table, Wellington is the top IB school! Without those IB results combined in the way they were, our strong performance at 90.4% A,*, A and B % at A level would have put us much higher in the table to reflect our academic ‘premier league’ status.