Barnsley Academy celebrates a watershed in GCSE results
24 August 2010
Students and staff at Barnsley Academy are celebrating a breakthrough year in GCSE results. The number of students achieving five or more A*-C grades including English and maths has almost trebled; this year 51% achieved these results compared to 19% last year. These are the academy’s best ever results and are a dramatic increase from the 6% of students achieving these results in 2006 – the year before the academy opened. In achieving these results the academy has broken the National Challenge target.
In total, 93% of students achieved five or more GCSEs or equivalent at grade A*-C; a dramatic increase from 77% last year. To celebrate these results, the academy let off 93 helium balloons when the students came to collect their results this morning.
Delighted with these results, Dave Berry, Principal of Barnsley Academy, said: “We are absolutely thrilled with this improvement. Staff and students have worked exceptionally hard over the past year and today’s results are proof of that. They show that the academy has made a breakthrough and is firmly established on the right path to becoming an exceptional school.”
Kathy August, Deputy Chief Executive of the United Learning Trust (ULT), which sponsors the academy, said: “This is an exceptional set of results and I would like to congratulate Dave Berry, his colleagues and students. What is being achieved at Barnsley Academy is further evidence of the positive impact becoming an academy can have upon a school. Across the country, ULT academies are today celebrating considerable improvements in their GCSE results and Barnsley’s is the biggest increase of all.”
