Students Head to Top Universities After A-Level Success

Students at Ellesmere College celebrate their A level success with an excellent set of grades. Overall performance saw 100% pass rate for boys and 96.8% for girls, giving an overall figure of 98.8% of pass grades including quite a number of outstanding performances. 50% of all grades awarded to Ellesmere students were in the top A*/B grades with nearly 10% at the top grade A*.

Whilst heartfelt congratulations go to all students there were several particularly notable performances that are worthy of specific mention.

Local students John Paul and Becky Orr, both from Ellesmere, have secured their places at Oxford and Cambridge respectively. John achieved an impressive result of two A* grades in Maths and Music Technology with a further two A grades in Music and Chemistry and in his spare time he completed an AS in Further Maths, securing an A grade in that. He intends to read Music at St. Peter's College, Oxford. Becky gained the highest score possible in the IB Diploma with 45 points, becoming one of just 30 in the UK to achieve such a score. She goes on to read History at Girton College, Cambridge.

Medical and science applications have been very successful with Ben Hall, Bethan Lee and Mark McBrien all securing places to read medicine. Ben won The Silver Cross Academic Scholarship on joining Ellesmere and has gained an A* in Biology and three A grades in Chemistry, Physics and General Studies. He will be studying medicine at Liverpool University. Mark McBrien will pursue medicine at Edinburgh University with three A* grades in Physics, Maths and Chemistry plus a further two A grades in Biology and General Studies. Bethan Lee has secured her place to read medicine at Leicester with an A* in Biology and two A grades in Chemistry and Maths. Leroy Tonge has gained a place at University College London to read Medicinal Chemistry with an A* in Biology and A grades in Chemistry and Physics.

As always, Ellesmere pupils are going on to a very wide range of courses. Ruoqi Lin secured three A* grades to confirm her place at Imperial College, London to read Civil Engineering, Kamilya Salina gained two A* grades and one A grade to study Accountancy at Warwick. Daisy Clarke achieved two A*grades in English Literature and Drama and an A in Media and goes on to study Musical Theatre in London and George Fradley will be taking up his place at the Royal Welsh College of Music at Cardiff. Other students are venturing even further afield; Kate Norman has won a Sports Scholarship at the University of Florida and Fine Art student, Stella Zhao, will be studying at the Chicago Art Institute.

The A level results follow on from those that IB students received earlier in the summer. 17 Ellesmere students sat the International Baccalaureate Diploma this year with over 50% achieving the higher level at above 30 points, which is equivalent of 3 A* grades at A Level. The average overall score for the International Baccalaureate candidates equated to three A grades at A Level, with local girl, Becky Orr achieving a top score of 45 points, which is an equivalent of 5 A* grades at A Level.

Mr Brendan Wignall, Headmaster, said 'It is a delight to see our students continue to secure top grades and all who wish to progress to university being able to do so. These results are impressive and I congratulate our A level and IB students on their achievements. Recent publications of university destinations have been confusing as they omit students who do the IB or choose to go to study abroad, which an increasing number are choosing to do. At this time of year both A level and IB can be acknowledged and therefore we celebrate all of our students' academic achievements today. All our students completing their studies with us deserve this success. Credit must also go to the excellent work of our teaching staff and of course to parents for their constant support and encouragement'.

15th August 2013  Back to News