South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 22/08/2013

Despite reports of an overall decline in A*-C grades nationally, the provisional figure for South Gloucestershire is 57% of pupils achieving five or more A*-C grades including English and maths, the government’s key measure. This is an increase of one percentage point on last year and represents our best ever performance.

The highest performing schools in the district are Castle School, John Cabot Academy, Winterbourne International Academy and Bradley Stoke Community School.

The most improved schools from last year are Abbeywood Community School, Bradley Stoke Community School, Chipping Sodbury Secondary School, Yate International Academy and Mangotsfield Secondary School.

The improvement at Abbeywood Community School is particularly worthy of mention as their results have risen significantly. Provisional results show that 60% of students achieved five or more A*-C grades including English and maths – an increase of 13 percentage points from last year’s 47% which was the school’s best ever results. There has also been an increase in the number of top grades achieved.

Cllr Ian Blair, Chair of the Children and Young People Committee, said: "Congratulations to everyone collecting their GCSE examination results today. The provisional figures indicate that it has been another successful year for young people in South Gloucestershire, with five of our secondary schools recording their best results ever. This reflects the hard work and dedication of not only students, but also their teachers, non-teaching staff, school governors, parents, carers and all the other people who support them."

Dave Baker, Executive Headteacher at Bradley Stoke Community School and Abbeywood Community School, said: “The results at Abbeywood Community School are the best ever by a long way and indicate that we have really turned a corner. One of our students achieved an amazing eleven A*s and a distinction, and it was great to see all the happy faces of students who are able to progress and do what they want to do.”

He added: “It was very important that we made a strong recovery at Bradley Stoke Community School after last year’s disappointing Maths results which affected the overall headline figure last year. The number of students achieving five or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and maths has bounced back to 66% this year from 57% in 2012. These results are a validation of the findings from recent Ofsted monitoring visits which identified good progress.”