Oaklands Catholic School headteacher praises students and staff as just one per cent of grades changed

Headteacher Matthew Quinn said he was ‘delighted’ with the results as 220 pupils arrived in staggered groups to pick up their GCSE results.

He said: ‘I’ve been really delighted with what’s happened today – students are back in the centre of the exam process and that’s the way it should have always been.

‘Our results are more or less in line with previous years, and when I look at the number of youngsters who got 8s or 9s, it’s comparable with previous years.

‘As a school, we got it just about right.’

But the same could not be said for the government’s handling of exams, according to the headteacher, who marked down their performance as ‘shambolic.’

He said: ‘Because of delays to Cambridge Nation results we have 20 students waiting for results.

‘The government has had a week’s worth of shambles and had time to get their ducks in a row.’

Students Cerys Davies and Lorne Toms, both 16, were celebrating - with a few overwhelmed tears – results that Cery’s thought would be ‘horrific’. She said: ‘We saw so many A-level grades downgraded – I thought it was going to be horrific. I wasn’t expecting to do so well in geography and religious studies.’

Lorne - who received one 3, three 4s, two 6s, one 7, and one 8 – was brought to tears over her unexpected highest grade in history.

She said: ‘I was expecting 2s or 3s.

‘It feels so weird that we have achieved this in a global pandemic.’

Cerys hopes to study criminology, psychology, and sociology at A-level at Havant and South Downs College, while Lorne said she may stay on at the school’s sixth form to study history, religious studies, and sociology.

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Matthew said the school was ready to offer ‘100 per cent’ face-to-face tuition for sixth formers at the start of the academic year, thanks to the school’s size and layout.

He said: ‘This is no less then what students deserve considering the anxiety of recent months.’

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