GCSE results at Bootham School are being celebrated today with joy!

GCSE results at Bootham School are being celebrated today with the same joy and justification as A Levels were just two days ago.

“This bright, committed and lovely group of young people should feel very proud indeed of everything that they are celebrating today. They have all worked really hard and shown great resilience to demonstrate their best standard, despite the extraordinary disruption to their learning over the past seventeen months. Anyone who has done that, whatever grades they have received today, deserves the most enormous congratulations and has earned our immense admiration” said Bootham Head, Chris Jeffery.

“Teachers, too, who have worked with such selflessness and sustained commitment -too often almost to the point of exhaustion- to master a completely new way of ‘doing school’ and then of assessing standards, deserve our equal admiration, and our most heartfelt thanks”.

31 of the 73 Bootham students achieved at least 9 grades at 7 or above, 25 of them achieving at least 10 passes at that level. 7 of those students achieved the very highest grade in at least 10 subjects. All students achieved at least 5 grades 9-4, with 69% of grades at 9-7 and 85% at 9-6.

“Of course this year’s results are better than usual across the country; the one-off system employed this year has promoted just that, by allowing students to show more easily their true best standard without the pressures and disadvantages of one-off exams. Lessons should be learned from that, to help us develop a better system of assessment in this country that more often permits students to showcase that true best standard, as well as the many other attributes beyond just academic prowess that are developed by a properly rounded and rich education” said Mr Jeffery.