I can’t believe it is October already! We are back in the swing of things now, and it has been wonderful to see our new sixth form cohort get started on their A levels.
This summer, we had another set of fantastic A level results. We were so proud of our year 13s, who worked incredibly hard to get those grades. They were in year 11 during the pandemic, so missed out on the opportunity to sit full exams. We were concerned that they might struggle with the demands of the A level papers, but when it came down to it, they did a great job.
In every subject, 90% of exams were graded A*-B, and nearly two thirds of our students achieved an average of three A grades. Not only that, but overall, nearly three quarters of exams were graded A or A*. It was fantastic to see our students, many of whom had been with us since they were little 11 year olds, opening their envelopes and finding out that they had got the grades to go to the university of their dreams. Many of our students are now studying at Russell Group universities and Oxbridge.
As we look ahead to the next set of A level results, we are focusing our minds once again on year 13 revision, and making sure they do as much as possible in the run up to those crucial exams,
A tool we have found to be invaluable is the Up Learn platform. We now use UpLearn across five subjects: Maths, Economics, Chemistry, Biology, Physics and- for the first time this year- Psychology. We have been using Up Learn for three years now, and have seen the impact it has on our students’ results.
For instance, 100% of Economics students who used Up Learn achieved an A* or B grade. In Chemistry, 95% of students achieved A*-B, and 80% achieved A*-A. We also found that the students who used Up Learn regularly achieved up to 1.5 grades higher than their peers.
We set Up Learn as consolidation for homework. All of our sixth formers receive one hour of homework per hour of teaching, to ensure they are getting plenty of independent practice in at home or during independent study periods.
Up Learn is the perfect resource for our students. Not only is it extremely well sequenced and thought out, with tons of example exam responses, it saves teachers valuable time. Rather than spending precious time thinking of quality homework tasks, our teachers can simply set students off to complete a series of exercises on Up Learn that evening. This puts the teacher’s mind at rest: Up Learn is time effective and rigorous, and supports every student and pushes them to make progress.
We are delighted that our first cohort of Psychology A level students will be able to benefit from the wisdom of Up Learn this year. I can’t wait to see their results next August! I have no doubt that, if they all work hard and make the best use of Up Learn, they will fly!