Farnborough Sixth Form College and OCR issue nation’s first A stars
Posted on Friday 15 August 2008
Students from Farnborough Sixth Form College were the first in the country to be awarded the equival
Students from Farnborough Sixth Form College were the first in the country to be awarded the equivalent of the new A star grade in a trial carried out between the College and the awarding body, OCR. Although the new nationally recognized qualification will not be introduced until 2010, the trial was conducted to ascertain how well students would deal with the more challenging A level questions. .
College Principal Dr John Guy said, “The College welcomes the changes to the A level examinations and, in particular, the introduction of the new A* grade from 2010.”
He added, “We always seek to understand any changes in examination specifications before they are introduced so that both staff and students are well-prepared; the trial with OCR was undertaken to enable both the College and the Awarding Body to see how well our students would respond to the more open-ended questions.”
In the trial involving five subjects, 28 out of the 50 gifted and talented students who accepted invitations to take an additional examination paper were awarded a Grade A*.
Greg Watson, Chief Executive of OCR, said, “We were delighted to conduct this trial in partnership with Farnborough Sixth Form College because it has given our examiners an early opportunity to test some of their ideas in setting stretching and challenging questions to identify those students who deserve the A* grade.”
Farnborough Sixth Form College is widely recognized for its pioneering work and was the first College to introduce the new Extended Project for A level students; in 2007, Farnborough students were the first in the country to be awarded the AQA Baccalaureate.
Dr Guy said, “With the additional stretch and challenge of the new A level, I believe that our A level programmes for young people, which also include an attestation of enrichment activities and an Extended Project, provide the breadth, depth and challenge of any baccalaureate or the new academic Diplomas – we are already doing it!”
A Star students
Among the College’s 28 A star candidates was 18 year old Caroline West of Rye Close, Farnborough who achieved a total of 5 grade As in English Literature, Chemistry, Biology, Law and General Studies and the A* in English Literature. Caroline, whose results mean that she has won a place at Selwyn College Cambridge to read Law, said, “I am so happy! And I’m really pleased with my results. The A star examination paper was really enjoyable because the questions were much more open-ended and I felt I was able to give my opinions and justify them.”
18 year old Simon Wood of Oaklea, Ash Vale, achieved his A* in Chemistry along with other A grades in Biology, Physics, Maths, Further Maths and General Studies. Simon, who will be going up to Balliol College, Oxford, to read Chemistry in October said, “I’m really looking forward to studying at Oxford and doing the A star exam paper provided quite a challenge – the questions were much more inventive so I’m really pleased to have got the A star!”
Top students in the Country - The Magnificent Seven
This year, an astonishing seven students from Farnborough Sixth Form College were among the top five or ten students in the country in a range of subjects. Leanda Hatten, 18, of Farnborough, and Claire Porterfield, 17, of Camberley achieved their outstanding results in performing arts and Max Welford, 18, of Camberley was one of the top ten students in Music Technology out of 3381 entries nationally. In addition Luke Palmer, 18, of Farnborough, achieved one of the nation’s top five marks in mathematics, Bethany Clark, 18, of Fleet, in Environmental Science, Edward Taylor, 18, of Woking, in English Literature, and Jessica Stewart,18, of Church Crookham, in General Studies.
Dr Guy said, “We have become accustomed to one or two of our students achieving one of the nation’s top marks but we have never before had seven across such a range of subjects. This really is a tribute to the strength of the teaching across the College and to the commitment of our students.”
Celebrating another year of outstanding results at the College, Principal Dr John Guy said, “We have a magnificent community of students who really understand the importance of studying to achieve well. Not only have we awarded the nation’s first A* grades, but also we have an astonishing six students who achieved six grade A passes in their A level examinations and a further 48 with 5 grade A passes.”
Overall the College is delighted with the achievements of students with an over 99% success rate for the 4292 A level subject entries. As one of the largest colleges in the country, Farnborough is also one of the most successful and was recently judged by Ofsted to be outstanding in every category inspected.
Dr Guy expressed particular delighted over the results in the sciences and in languages, both areas which cause concern nationally. He said, “I am pleased to report that the numbers taking these important subjects are increasing at Farnborough and success rate in 2008 has been outstanding.”
In the four principal languages offered at the College, French, German, Italian and Spanish, 31.5% of students achieved Grade A standard, whilst in the 449 entries for the three main sciences, biology, chemistry and physics, 157 students achieved grade A – at 35%, these are best results ever at the College. In mathematics, where numbers are again growing 46% of the 340 entries achieved Grade A whilst in further mathematics, where the College has one of the largest entries in the country, 45 of the 54 entries were awarded Grade A and every student achieved at least Grade B.
