Exam results, June 2009

Dear Parents,

Shortly after the publication of public exam results in UK, the press were full of stories about declining standards at GCSE and "grade inflation": 21.6% of all grades were A or A*. I posted an article about this (published in The Times) to the school noticeboard on 27th August. You can still read it at www.runnymede-college.com/noticeboard/article.php/20090827122526332.

There are two points worth making in this context when looking at Runnymede results: the UK figure refers to GCSE exams. At Runnymede we do IGCSEs which are widely accepted as being more rigorously assessed (to the point that many of the most academically competitive schools in UK are adopting them). Our percentage of A or A* was just over 54%.

At a time when more and more of our graduates are opting for top universities in UK and they are in turn looking for more and more A*s at IGCSE, I am pleased to report that nine of our pupils have at least six A*s at IGCSE. Another nine have achieved almost exclusively A or A*.

Particularly worthy of mention are Gonzalo Ramos with nine A*; Jennifer Legat with nine A*s, one A and one B; Virginia Crespi with eight A*s and two As; Casilda Aresti with eight A*s, one A and one B; Daniel Caverzaschi with seven A*s, two As and a B.

Grade inflation has bedevilled A level grades too. However, here too we are well above national averages: whereas in UK one in four exams was passed at grade A, at Runnymede with 57% of our grades being As.

Particularly worthy of mention from the graduating class of 2009 are: Eleanor Akers (Manchester) with A grades in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology and B in Further Maths; Mónica Delgado de Robles (Imperial) with As in Maths, Physics, Biology and B in Chemistry; Cristina Esteban (ICADE E4) with As in Economics, Geography, Maths and Spanish; Rodrigo García-Velasco (Oxford) with As in History, Spanish, Maths and Further Maths; David Lerner (Imperial) with As in Maths, Chemistry and Biology: Gonçalo Duarte (Lisbon) with As in Maths, Physics and Chemistry and B in Biology. Leticia Suarez (Imperial) with As in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry.

Yours sincerely,

Frank M Powell

(I)GCSE Results 2009

A Level Results 2009