News and Updates

GCSE Results 2022

25th August 2022

I am proud to say that we are today celebrating the resilience and dedication not only of our staff team - teachers, support staff and governors alike – but also of a cohort of children who have truly thrived in their summer exam experience at GCSE level here at Guildford County School. My thanks to the Exams team for making sure that this morning ran so smoothly and also to Daryl Bond and the Sixth Form team for ensuring that the Herculean task of enrolment got so swiftly under way. I must also thank the many other staff who attended earlier on today in order to help with the distribution of results and to offer their congratulations and support to the students themselves. This is not an obligation by any means, but it is hugely warming when colleagues choose to give up some of their holiday time so as to see the children through to the next stage of their life journeys.

Whilst the beginning of Year 11’s GCSE studies were last year disrupted by the pandemic, it has been wonderful to watch them refocus under Ollie Smith’s leadership and with the support of a superb Year 11 Tutor Team. It was superb, this year, to be back to public examinations and I am delighted to say that our results are at least equal to and in many places better than our best ever at GCSE level. I look forward, next, to the national level data analysis that will enable us to accurately assess the amount of progress that each child has made.  That said, with attainment a useful proxy for progress I feel quietly confident that we have performed well as a school and, as result, that we will also have opened many doors for the children; guaranteeing them every chance of a bright future.  Early Surrey level analysis suggests that we are in a very strong position against our peers and that the good name of the school remains just that.

For whatever part you have all played in these results, my sincere thanks. The challenge for us now, as we move into the new academic year, is that we must go again and go stronger next year, in order to get the same results for the children. This is because the Ofqual plan was always for the 2022 results to be better than they were in 2019, so to equal the results of 2022 in 2023, we will need to ensure even higher levels of performance from the children. We will need to ensure that they really are working as hard as their teachers and that there are no hiding places for underperformance as you all continue to work so tirelessly to give the children such an incredible school experience.

Over the five year story that we have jointly told together, each and every student is now able to take forward something that they can feel incredibly proud of and I am delighted to be able to share with you some individual stories of success. 

With 41% of all grades awarded at 9-7, it is difficult to single out individual students. Deserving of a special mention are Anna McKinney, Matilda Billinge, Dominic McCarthy and Sybil Gimblett for achieving exceptionally high results. We are also tremendously proud of Jasmin Schwartz, Ella Hobbs-Wilde, Daria Simpson-Dernovaya and Mohammad Mustafa who topped the value-added charts, achieving well above their individual target grades – a fantastic achievement.

The school also recognises the performance of the following students who achieved 5 or more Grade 9s – Freya Bridge, Grace Faulkner, Ben Harpur, Neve Howson, Bronwen MacLaren, Daniel Nixon, Maggie Patmore, Madeleine Payne, Stanley Pillay, Michelle Suna, Naomi Tearle and Morten Wynde. 

Today represents the end of one phase of each student's education and is a terrific opportunity to recognise and celebrate what they have all achieved. We are delighted to be able to congratulate the Year 11 Class of 2022 for their fantastic results and also to wish them well as they move on to the next phase of their lives with our full support and our very best wishes for the future. For most, I am thrilled to say that this will be here at Guildford County Sixth Form and we cannot wait to welcome them and a large number of external recruits through the doors in September.

Please see below some headline data for your interest.

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With my very best wishes to you all.

Steve Smith, Headteacher