GCSE: It’s 9999999999 and A* with Distinction for Bourne's Holly

Amongst a set of almost unbelievably outstanding GCSE results, Holly Barber from Bourne is celebrating an astonishing haul of 10 new-style GCSE awards at grade 9 and a special Distinction A* grade.

This year, the GCSE results in all of the core subjects and in all but three of the GCSE subjects offered at Bourne Grammar follow on from the new and more challenging courses of study and have been assessed entirely by examination.

Our students’ achievement this year is spectacular.

They leave the students incredibly well prepared to proceed to A-Level study in the Sixth Form in a few weeks’ time.

In addition to Holly’s fabulous 11 top grades, four further students achieved nine grade 9 passes along with other outstanding results.

Harriet Laugharne from Morton and Aashobanna Valli from Werrington each achieved nine grade 9s, an A* and a special Distinction A* grade. Rebecca Earth from Morton and Lauren Gapper from Bourne each achieved nine grade 9s and one grade 8.

Hannah Friel, Jonathan Gutteridge, Thomas Morris and Carrington Young all achieved eight grade 9 passes. Bertie Cliffe, Yasmin Hornsby, Angus Manning and Katie Stockman achieved seven.

Across the cohort, thirty-one students achieved at least five grade 9 passes and 90 students achieved at least one grade 9.

The new grading scheme has split the old grade A and A* into three grades, 7, 8 and 9. Our 206 students achieved 329 grade 9 passes, 640 at grade 8 or better and 1,063 at grade 7 or better.

This means that 54 per cent of all grades were at the equivalent of, or better than, the old A grade.

- Grade 9 passes 329: 17 per cent

- Grade 8 or 9 passes 640: 33 per cent

- Grade 7, 8 or 9 passes 1,063: 54 per cent

The results in the major subjects were hugely impressive. In each of biology, chemistry and physics the average grade was almost a grade 8.

In Mathematics, where the students achieved 33 grade 9, 40 grade 8 and 48 grade 7 passes the average over all students was a grade 7.

Students achieved fabulous results in English Language and English Literature with 97 language grades being grade 7 or better and 89 literature at grade 7 or better.

Although the study of modern foreign languages is reported to be declining nationally, at Bourne Grammar all students take GCSE Spanish and 44 achieved a grade 9 pass and 106 achieved a grade 7 or better. In French, all but one of the grades was a grade 9 ... the other was an 8.

Bourne Grammar’s Headteacher, Jonathan Maddox, commented: "Following on from last week’s fabulous A-Level results, these amazing GCSE results demonstrate just how much our students achieve.

"We were all a little anxious about this year’s results as they are the first for the new and more challenging courses, but across all the subjects our students and their teachers have taken the changes in their stride and have responded with dedicated hard work.

"Their labours have been richly rewarded. Although the new-style grades are not directly comparable with the results in previous years, it is clear that this has been an exceptional year in terms of our students’ GCSE performance.

"The results also bring to a close a fabulous year for the school in which we have seen our sporting successes and standards in productions in drama and music at a phenomenally high level."