Monkton Senior School in Bath is celebrating today as all of its Oxbridge candidates are taking up their offers, and the school achieves another strong performance at A-level with improved results again on the previous year.
All six candidates with offers for Oxford and Cambridge exceeded their targets and many Monkton students will also be heading for the UK’s top universities including Exeter, Bristol, Durham, Imperial and Birmingham.
The results at Monkton represent a year-on-year improvement with 40% of the grades being awarded at A* or A level, up from 36% on the previous year. There was a national increase of 0.5 points.
Two pupils achieved A* grades in all four of their subjects, and another achieved three A*s and an A grade. Six other students achieved 2 A* grades each, with 15% of all grades awarded at the A* level and 27% of the year group achieving at least one A*.
Monkton Principal, Chris Wheeler, said, “These are excellent results once again from A-level students at Monkton. It is especially pleasing to see Monkton pupils securing significantly better results than those of previous years and against the national picture. This continues to speak to the power of learning about yourself and thinking differently being the best path to high achievement in all areas of the curriculum.”
Most significantly, in the 13 subjects reformed with a new linear curriculum this year where greater emphasis is placed on strength of understanding over repetition of knowledge, the national picture shows a slight drop in A/A* grades but Monkton pupils show an increase in these subjects against last year.
Mr Wheeler added, “This is a real endorsement of the excellent work of the teaching staff in helping pupils understand their subjects, and themselves as the best route to high achievement and reinforces the findings of ISI that, ‘pupils are strongly encouraged to be inquisitive, think for themselves, be organised and develop independent study skills’.”