KES Pupils Awarded Outstanding A Level Grades

As if coping with lockdown and missing out on exams and everything that normally follows wasn’t enough, this year’s Sixth Form leavers have had to deal with the added stress and confusion of radical announcements about exam grading in Scotland and last minute changes to the process in England, before a public outcry about the evident unfairness of the outcomes forced ministers to drop the system of moderated grades in all the nations of the UK in favour of those originally submitted by teachers. It has certainly been an eventful and somewhat nerve-wracking past week for young people up and down the country, with many unfortunately still facing uncertainty about their futures.

Like most schools, King Edward’s last week initially had many of those submitted grades lowered, with over 60% of KES pupils seeing at least one result downgraded and several pupils being moderated down in all their subjects. We were therefore pleased and relieved when the decision to revert to Centre Assessment Grades was announced earlier this week.

With a very talented group of Year 13 KES pupils already holding the School’s best ever GCSE results, it is perhaps not surprising that they have also gained outstanding A Level outcomes, including nudging over 90% A*-B grades for the second time in the School’s history.

Headmaster, Martin Boden, commented: ”This has been a very challenging past few months for many young people, and I feel particularly for the exam year groups who have missed out on the chance to prove themselves in the exam hall in the usual way, however daunting that can feel at the time. I hope that these outstanding A Level results are the ones that our pupils were hoping for and which will now help them to move happily and successfully on to the next stage in their lives. Let nobody be in any doubt: these pupils, supported all the way by the fantastic staff here, have worked very hard to achieve this success and to be recognised for what we all at KES know them to be – a very bright, engaging, talented and hugely likeable year group who have added to life at King Edward’s in so many vibrant, colourful and impressive ways during their time here. On behalf of everyone at the School, I congratulate them on their success, thank them for all their contributions and wish them the very best in all that they do in the future.”