Monday 06 February 2012

Academics Westbourne is interested in and focused on developing each individual's potential.  We are not concerned with league tables.  We do not massage our GCSE results because we enter all our students into all their GCSEs regardless of ability.  Most of our students will pass all 10 GCSEs, many will get grade As, the more able will achieve A* in some subjects and the vast majority of our pupils on learning support will exceed expectations.

Over the last few years most of our pupils have gone onto further education, either to pursue the conventional route and study 'A'  levels or to take National Diplomas (worth 3 'A' levels) at local colleges.  Students are given career advice and make informed decisions on further education choices as we invite guest speakers in from local sixth forms and colleges.  A number of Old Westbournians who were our first students to stay on into our Senior School have now graduated from university and we are beginning to hear of many success stories as these ex-students look back on their formative education at Westbourne.

For me the most exciting developments we have made are due to the purchase of Ashdell Grove.  This has allowed us to expand into three teaching groups in Senior School.  It has seen the birth of our ‘more able pupil’ groups and this structure will be continued for the foreseeable future.  This is an accelerated stream that is motoring ahead and has raised the bar on academic standards.  The present S11 ‘more able pupils’  began their GCSE Science a year early and are pursuing Astronomy as an extra GCSE in their final year.  The other groups in S11 have also benefited by even smaller class sizes than the usual 14; all in all the new structure and greater opportunities that we provide to pupils at Westbourne will ensure healthy academic achievement.

John Hicks

We are currently producing excellent GCSE results. 

2010 saw a 100 per cent pass rate with five grade A* to Cs.

Westbourne academic success continues to flourish

 

2011 - Our Year 11s have managed to achieve a very creditable pass rate of 86% (minimum of five A* - C grades).  If you include Maths and English within the five, the figure is 76%, which is well above the national average.

 

The total number of A/A* for Year 11 was 96 as compared to last years 91 and our top set out performed all previous results with an amazing 98% of all exams taken being A* - B grades (last years was 88%).  Some of the results in our lower sets were excellent and showed a 20% increase in value over our earlier predictions in February.

 

Special mentions should go to  Tom O’Connor and James Brotherston who each achieved 11  A* and A grades.

 

Also to Kathryn Grayson who joined us from Brantwood School part way  through her GCSE year.  Despite being faced with the extra challenge of a change in examining bodies at very short notice in many of her subjects, her commitment and dedication paid off and saw her achieve 9 A* and A grades.

All our pupils have gone onto the schools/colleges of their choice and we wish them all the best in their future studies.

 

 

 

2010 saw a 100 per cent pass rate with five grade A* to Cs.

A cohort of 30 pupils gained over 90 grade A* and As,  63% passed all their exams, 67% got at least 8 passes and 84 % of the grades obtained in the faster moving set were A* - B.

We have continued to improve year on year and this year we are delighted and justifiably proud that more pupils are reaching 5 or more A* to C grades than ever before. Given that we have  a non-selective, mixed ability intake, we are especially proud of their achievements.