Speakers of Distinction at Ellesmere

Speakers of Distinction at Ellesmere

Sixth Form students at Ellesmere have achieved extremely high grades in the Advanced Certificate in Spoken English Examination run by the English Speaking Board.

At Ellesmere there has been a bumper crop of 6th form results in the English Speaking Board exams with 28 (over 70%) of their candidates achieving either Distinction or top Merits. Especially newsworthy is the fact that for the first time the School has entered their International Baccalaureate overseas students for the English first language version of the examination and many of them have managed to achieve the highest grades.

Head of English at Ellesmere, Stephen Purcell, commented, 'We are very proud of our senior students' performance in their ESB exams: excellent examination results, success in public speaking competitions and the dynamic performance programme in Arena Arts provide the perfect context for ambitious achievements in oral communication. Bearing in mind the significant oral elements in the IB examinations, we are delighted that amongst these high performers there are students who have come from abroad and been able to develop their second language skills to this impressive degree."

Five students who participated in the external examination received the top grade of distinction. They were; William Bartlett, Carl Cedric, Sam Lewis, Ben Morris and Freddie Nevel. Another twenty-two students, Adam Beech, Katie Brereton, Leonie Brereton, Rebecca Chmiel, Adam Churton, Hal Collison, Alex Deller, Jed Denham, Molly Dingwall, Garnet Fischer, Rhys Hayes, Alina Heidenreich, Arthur Higgins, James King, Annalena Kohler, Max Matthey, Jamie McBrien, Chris Morgan, Sophie Mullock, Caroline Selker, Nathaniel Thomas and Alex Whittle all achieved a merit plus grade.

Stephen Purcell, added, 'The students have been through an extremely rigorous procedure working in a group for an entire day under the scrutiny of an examiner. They were tested in just about every conceivable aspect of oral communication from individual presentations to group discussions. These exams are a wonderful foundation for the skills demanded by higher education and life beyond. Our pupils have shown very special abilities as communicators'.

Spoken English is one of the co-curricular activities offered at Ellesmere College to all pupils from Year 4 to the Sixth Form, and is linked to a graded scheme of English Speaking Board examinations.

 

25th May 2007  Back to News