Pupils and staff at Harrogate Ladies’ College are today celebrating an impressive set of A level results which saw pupils secure prestigious places at Oxbridge universities.
Pupils at the school achieved 8 times more A* grades than independent base-line predictions and 69% of all grades were A*-B, an increase on 2016 grades when the school topped the Harrogate league tables based on average point score per academic entry.
Pupils at the all-girls school also achieved particularly high results in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects with 100% A* grades in Biology and 100% A*-B grades in Chemistry.
Principal, Sylvia Brett commented:
I’m so delighted that the girls have achieved such excellent results, they’ve worked really hard and I hope they’re proud of what they’ve achieved.”
There’s a lot of discussion at the moment around how to encourage more girls to take STEM subjects so I’m particularly pleased that as an all-girls school we’re leading the way in this area. Many of our girls are now going on to study STEM
related subjects such as Medicine, Veterinary Science, Physics, Maths and Engineering at university.
This year also marked the beginning of a new era for A levels with the introduction of new “tougher” syllabuses assessed solely on exams the end of the 2-years. It was a big change for the pupils and for the teachers, but I’m really delighted that we’ve seen some of our best results in these reformed subjects.
Among those celebrating today is Nicole Brocksom from Harrogate who, 2 years ago achieved 10 A*s at GCSE and has now secured a place at the University of Cambridge to study Law with a clean sweep of A* and A grades. Nicole, who is the Head of Chapel Choir at the school, has also been awarded a prestigious Choral Scholarship from Girton College Cambridge.
Nicole said:
I’m so happy that I’m going to Cambridge, it’s always been my dream and the choral scholarship is the icing on the cake! The teachers at Harrogate Ladies’ College have been brilliant, they’ve helped me believe that I could do it and they’ve supported me all of the way.
It was a particularly proud day for Nicole’s father, David Brocksom, who also studied Law at the University of Cambridge.
Nicole is one of 2 pupils from the school to secure an Oxbridge place this year with Nikki Miao also having being awarded a place at the University of Oxford to study Physics and Philosophy.
Younger pupils at the school also got in on the act today when 6 pupils from Year 9 received their AS level Creative Writing results. Having taken the exam 3 years earlier than usual, there were celebrations all round as 100% of pupils passed and a third achieved A grades.
