Year 13 students at The Charter School North Dulwich have today received their A level and Level 3 BTEC grades.

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We are immensely proud of how all our Year 13 students have responded to the difficulties of this year’s unusual and stressful circumstances and are delighted that 88% of the year group have gained places on their first choice of university or art foundation course.  Leeds, Manchester and Bristol were particularly popular choices with students this year, with 30% of the year group being offered a place at one of these prestigious Russell Group universities.  In addition, 10 students have been accepted onto highly competitive art foundation courses at UAL, Kingston and Ravensbourne.

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Overall, 64% of A Level and Level 3 BTEC grades were A or A*.  Among those celebrating are:

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Sahar Abedipour (A*A*A*A*), Christabel Amankwaa-Tonto (A*A*A), Grace Fitter (A*AA), Lois Stanley (A*A*A), Stella Steed (A*A*A*) and Merrie Woodcock (A*A*A*) all gained places to study medicine, and Luna Santeusanio (ABC) is off to study veterinary science at the Royal Veterinary College.  

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Georgina Francis (A*A*A) narrowly missed out on offers to study dentistry due to the COVID cap on numbers, but she has already started a year-long dentistry apprenticeship and we have no doubt that she will be successful in her application for dentistry courses next year.

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Liv Ekdawi (A*A*A) will be studying English at Oxford, Mark Simmons (A*A*A*A*) is going to study Engineering at Oxford, and Amber Forrester (A*A*A) is off to study Human Sciences at Oxford.  Rory Chappell (A*A*A*) is due to study History at Cambridge whilst Sarah Challen Flynn (A*A*A*) and Liam Winning (A*A*A*) both turned down their Cambridge offers and will be studying at Edinburgh instead.  Melanie Kirchner (A*A*A*A*) also turned down a Cambridge offer for Natural Sciences and will be continuing her studies in France.

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The following students particularly impressed us with their resilience in overcoming significant challenges during the lockdown periods — all of them have gained places at their first-choice university, and we are incredibly proud of them: Dajean Bernard (BCC), Neneh Barrie (ABB), Hollie Vass (AAA), Nzube Uzoukwu (AAB) and Marcus Teigland Green (CCD).  However, we could have picked out many more students and we want to congratulate all our students for what they have achieved over the last two years.

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We continue to support the very small number of students who don’t yet have future destinations sorted, including those wishing to apply for apprenticeships and those who want to reapply through UCAS next year.

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This year, as has been well documented, Y13 students have faced a significant amount of disruption due to the ongoing COVID pandemic, and as a result, external examinations were once again cancelled. In their place grades have been awarded through a process of teacher assessed grades approved and awarded by the exam boards. The government is not publishing performance data for any schools or colleges this year due to the varying impact of the pandemic.

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The Charter School North Dulwich followed a rigorous process to determine students’ grades based on a range of evidence including internal tests sat in exam conditions, coursework and homework. Grades have been awarded based on the specifications of the exam boards for each subject, in-school tasks followed the same format as awarding organisation materials and were marked in a way that reflects awarding organisation mark schemes.

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All subject grades were subjected to moderation by subject leaders and senior leaders in order to award the most accurate and appropriate grade for each individual student based on the topics that they had covered during the past two years.

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Headteacher, Christian Hicks, commented:

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“Once again, this year’s Year 13 have faced a set of circumstances that have created uncertainty and stress for them, and they have reacted with dignity and good grace. We are immensely proud of the many success stories today, which are a direct result of students' continued hard work over the past two years, where their learning has been significantly disrupted by the pandemic.

It has been a difficult 18 months for Year 13, and many of the usual events and experiences that reflect the excitement and richness of life in the sixth form have sadly not happened. However, we all hope that the future looks brighter as we learn to live with COVID, and we wish them all the very best as they move on to the next stage of their careers, be that higher education, an apprenticeship or the world of work.” 

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