Students and staff at Weymouth College are proudly celebrating another year of A Level success, as course results are published across the country today.
This year, the College’s A Level students achieved an overall A2 pass rate of 96%. That figure represents an 11% increase on the 2013 pass rate and means that, the College has continued to improve its performance against a weakened national pass rate.
Weymouth College provides the widest range of A Levels in the region. On several courses, including AS Creative Writing, AS English Literature, AS Media Studies, AS Photography and AS World Development, students achieved a 100% pass rate.
18 year-old Rhea Bailey, from Chickerell, received two A*s in English Lit and Psychology. She’ll be starting a degree in History at the University of Exeter in the autumn. About her results, Rhea said “I’m simply overwhelmed,” and that she was looking forward to starting her degree.
This year, students accepted offers from universities across the UK including several of the elite Russell Group universities, such as Exeter, Nottingham and Southampton.
Gemma Harris, who won the Sixth Form Student of the Year award for 2014, received Bs in each of History, Religious Studies and Law. She’s off to Birmingham University to study law with American legal studies, and will spend an additional year studying the US. Gemma said, she was “surprised but delighted” at her results.
Across the College, 273 students applied to university in 2014. Of this year’s A Level cohort, every student that applied was offered a place with over 90% accepting offers at their first-choice institution. In addition, more than 90% of College’s BTEC students who applied to university also received offers, which confirms that the College provides a variety of paths into Higher Education.
The College, which is now in the Top 10% of UK colleges based on latest success rates, has seen a spectacular rise in performance and is now ranked in the UK’s Top 20 Colleges.
Among those students celebrating some fantastic results was 30 year-old Anna Irwin who received two As and a B, in French, Politics and English. She said “I’m really happy with my results. It was a challenge being a mature student as I needed to balance home life with my studies but the College was really helpful.”
Principal of Weymouth College, Liz Myles, said: “These students can be very proud of their efforts this year, as are we. They’ve worked incredibly hard to invest in their future and achieve their ambitions. As staff at the College, we’re pleased to have been able to support them in doing so.”
These students are the first group of A Level students to have enjoyed the College’s refurbished Sixth Form facilities, which opened last summer.
Head of Sixth Form, Howard Brierley, said “We’re proud of the hard work every student put into their studies this year and we’re delighted with their results. Together with my colleagues, I wish all our students the very best of luck and every success with their future endeavours.”
For those students who didn’t receive the results they had planned for, the College’s guidance team were on hand all day to offer advice and support on next steps.
