News and Updates

A Level Results 2020

13th August 2020

Today we are celebrating the hard work and achievements of our students here at Guildford County School – my sincere thanks go to the Sixth Form and Exams teams for making sure that the morning ran so smoothly and also to the many other staff who attended to help with the distribution of results and to offer their congratulations and support to the students themselves.  Whilst their studies and preparation for the exams were abruptly halted by the lockdown at the end of March and the cancellation of the A Level exams for this summer, we want to celebrate their many achievements over the course of the 7 years that they have been with us. 

Our students did not get a chance to show what they would have achieved in formal A Level exams but instead, there has been a complex process to allocate a ‘Centre Assessment Grade’ (CAG) and a ranking for each student in each subject.  Over recent months, and continuing as we write this, there has been some debate and controversy in the media about the CAG process, but we must not allow this to distract us all from celebrating the hard work of our students over a great number of years.  Indeed, we cannot allow our students to be defined by this most unusual of times.  These students did not get the chance to have the usual leavers' events, so it is important that they can move on to the next stage in their education with the sense of achievement and recognition that they all so rightly deserve.

The A Level results this year have been allocated according to a standardisation model which uses the results of previous years, rather than being a reflection of the standards in the school in the academic year 2019-20.  As a result, the DfE are not compiling or publishing any school performance figures and so in keeping with this, Surrey schools and others more widely will not be publishing school level performance figures for this summer.

We are, however, delighted to be able to share with you some individual stories of success.  Three County students, Bethan, Rebecca and Jamie have secured places at Oxford University. We are also tremendously proud of Cameron who has secured a place at the Royal Academy of Music and Ellie and Leah who are the first of their families to go to University.

At the time of writing this, all of our students who have applied to University have secured places at prestigious Universities across the country including Russell Group Universities.

Steve Smith, Head of Guildford County School, comments that, ‘today represents the end of one phase of each student's education and the opportunity to recognise and celebrate what they have achieved.  We are delighted to be able to congratulate the Class of 2020 for their many achievements and also to wish them well as they move on to the next phase of their lives with our full support and best wishes.’