Trafford College

Aug 24, 2023

Anxiety turns to joy as teenagers across Greater Manchester get GCSE grades It was an emotional morning The video will auto-play soon8Cancel Play now Sign up for our daily newsletter to get the day's biggest stories sent direct to your inbox Invalid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later. More Newsletters We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info Thank you for subscribing! Group 28 Sign up for our daily newsletter to get the day's biggest stories sent direct to your inbox Invalid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later. Sign Up × Nervousness gave way to relief at schools across Greater Manchester this morning as teenagers collected their GCSE results. Thursday (August 24) was the all-important date for this year’s pupils to find out their fate. The students faced a grade ‘re-set’ with marking, as exams regulator Ofqual said this year’s GCSE results would be lower than last year when teachers graded their work. Despite the challenge of getting top marks, many Mancunian students rose to it - and were justly rewarded. A day which started full of anxiety was punctuated by tears of joy, screams of delight, and jumps of ecstasy by mid-morning. At Chorlton High School in south Manchester, palpable relief could be seen on the faces of students and teachers. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features One of those who faced an apprehensive wait was Luke Silwa. He was predicted a grade 4 - equivalent to a C in the old grading system - for science in year 10, so he had some work to do to turn things around. His hard work paid off and he is walking away from school with an 8 in science, equivalent to between A and A*. (Image: Maisie Lawton/MEN) “It’s all thanks to (my teacher Miss Sarwar) and she’s really helped me,” added Luke. “I couldn’t have done it without her. I’ll be doing business, Spanish and maybe sociology at Xaverian College now I’ve got the results I needed.” Luke wasn’t the only high achiever in his year. Classmate Lila Maddock got eight 9s (the top grade), two 8s and one 7 - despite having some classes taught online due to the pandemic. She said: “I’m going to college to study history, chemistry, maths and biology. I have not completely decided on which college I’m going to. “Online school was crazy with being dyslexic. You're used to writing everything to your teachers and then they noticed there was a barrier. Dictating over a video call was really hard and I think it’s important for schools to learn about making online sessions and school accessible for everyone.” Liam Ainsworth echoed Lila's sentiment. He got an 8 in food tech, and will head to Trafford College to become a pastry chef next month, but he still had his issues with the process. He said: “It’s been tough with Covid and I do believe we were caught up in that which hasn’t been fair when expected to go straight to 2019 standards of results, but I’ve got what I need and I’ve worked hard for five years so I’m happy with that.” Another clever clogs was Gray Walsh-Gleeson, who scored 9s in drama, biology, chemistry, food tech; and 8s in physics, English literature, history and maths. She said: “I’m honestly really happy with my results, I didn’t expect to get 9s in the subjects that I did. “I feel like I’ve worked really hard towards them and I’ve been rewarded for that hard work. I'm going to do sociology, history and drama at Xaverian college.” Wynter Easter-Jones got four 9s and three 8s, and close pal Jessica Russell got an 8 and two 7s. They are both really happy with their results and are going to Xaverian College. Wynter said: “I think it was so stressful and there was a lot of pressure on us to do well. But I know it pushed for us to do better.” Jessica added: “We missed out on a lot of schooling and we’re treated like we didn’t so it was stressful to know we were being marked without that into consideration. It wasn’t really fair but I don’t think the marking was too harsh.” Teachers at Chorlton High said the results represent the end of ‘a journey’. Jayne Osborne, head of year 11, said: “They’ve been really focused and worked hard. Some students have struggled (others have) taken it in their stride but they’ve all collectively worked so hard. Delighted Charlotte Blomfield and Eleni Smith at Parrs Wood High School (Image: Darren Robinson Photography) “The revision sessions staff have put on in their own time during weekends and holidays has been absolutely exceptional and students have really taken advantage of that. You could see them in the end with their confidence and independence.” Across the country, the proportion of GCSE entries awarded top grades fell from last year but is higher than before the pandemic, figures showed. More than a fifth of UK GCSE entries were awarded the top grades – at least a 7 or an A grade – this year, down by 4.3 percentage points on last year when 26.3 percent of entries achieved the top grades. Schools minister Nick Gibb acknowledged that progress on closing the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils had 'been undone' during the pandemic. He told BBC Breakfast: “We did achieve a 9 percent closing of that gap for secondary and we closed the gap by 13 percent for primary, but that has been undone, as you say, by Covid, and now we need to get back to normality. “We’ve got the recovery programme happening in our schools right now. And then we need to get back to the reform programme to make sure that we can continue to close that gap.” Story Saved You can find this story in   My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Follow Manchester Evening News Most Recent Most Recent