“Proud, Happy and a bit Relieved”

Our students are celebrating excellent A-level and BTec results.

Our top-achieving students include Grace Flint who achieved A*A*A* and will study Biological Sciences at Birmingham University; Ellen Power achieved A*AA and will study French and Politics at Cardiff University; India Williams gained Dist*AA, and with her talent in the performing arts has secured a place at the highly competitive Guildford School of Acting; Rob Davidson also achieved Dist*AA and will read History at Aberystwyth. Each with AAA, Joe Hartley will go to Birmingham University to study Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Neddy Ieong is off to Aberystwyth to study Veterinary Sciences, and James Oldfield will study International Relations and Politics at Cardiff University. Willow O’Leary and Abigail Sansbury both achieved AAB; Willow will now study English and Creative Writing at Falmouth University.

These are amazing results, especially when national results are down a bit and many students have not got their first choice places at uni. Our results are up a little on last year, and literally every student has secured their first choice place. This year, there have been no teacher assessed grades. Students have worked hard to sit exams and gain their grades. The exam boards have adjusted grade boundaries slightly leniently to a mid-point between 2019 and 2021. You’d expect results to be down on last year’s, but at Clyst Vale they are actually slightly better: Clyst Vale’s class of 2022 achieved a 100% pass rate with 37% of grades at A* or A, and 60% at A*, A or B.

We are so proud of our students, who have battled through two difficult years. Their GCSE and AS exams were cancelled, they lost a whole term to lockdown and remote learning, many have had covid or teachers absent through covid, and all of this led to continuing uncertainty across two years. They had to do extra exams in case this summer’s exams were cancelled. Some individuals have faced significant mental health challenges as a result, and have done fantastically well to get grades, let alone good ones. All have shown incredible resilience.

Huge thanks and credit goes to my colleagues, who have done an amazing job, and the last two years has been really hard for them, too. And a big “thank you” to families for their support. It’s those three legs of that tripod again ! We really didn’t know what to expect today, so it was wonderful to see so many happy faces and the only tears being those of joy and relief.

At the risk of repeating myself, THE most important thing is whether young people can progress to the next stage of their lives. A-levels and BTecs end the journey through school, but are really the start of a bigger, more exciting journey. So, we are proud, happy (and yes, a

bit relieved) that Clyst Vale’s students can start this journey with confidence.

Kevin Bawn