Student success as Castle View Academy gets highest ever GCSE results

Castle View Academy bagged its highest ever GCSE, leaving both teachers and teenagers overwhelmed.

Despite facing the disruptions of pandemic lockdowns, an impressive 61 per cent of pupils at the academy passed English and maths, and 46 per cent got grades 5 and above.

Alfie Peacock, 16 from Paulsgrove, has bagged himself nine GCSE’s including three distinctions and is now off Southdowns College to study acting for stage and screen, a UAL Level 3 extended diploma.

Alfie said: ‘That’s nine more than I expected to get! I’ve been very nervous this entire time, but I put the work in during the school and tried to raise my grades as much as I could.

‘I’m hoping to get into the University of Arts in London to make a name for myself in the acting world.’

The academy took a different approach to this year’s results day than most schools, giving pupils the option to open their results with a teacher and have a one-on-one chat about the steps that follow and where they may be heading.

One pupil, 16-year-old Bobbi-Lee Taylor said: ‘It was better that way, I actually didn’t understand what was on the paper and it helped to talk through it.’

Bobbi-Lee, who achieved five GCSE’s at pass grade and above, is now facing a decision between being a member of a cabin crew, or studying fashion design and clothing construction at Southdowns College.

‘I’m extremely happy, I was tenth overall in the year group. I wasn’t expecting it, I didn’t want to expect too much,’ added Bobbi-Lee.

Head of Year 11, Dan Waldren, said: ‘Today is about celebrating with the students, but also making sure that we support them for their next step.

‘A lot of our students have done really well and are really pleased, but we do have some students that haven’t quite achieved what they wanted so we need to offer some support around what we can do to make sure they’re going towards where they need to be.’

Councillor, Suzy Horton, cabinet member for children, families and education at Portsmouth City Council, was also in attendance to congratulate the students and ‘celebrate individual successes.’