It has been a long journey for the 16-year-old, who spent the better part of two academic years studying at home during the 2020 and 2021 Covid lockdown, and was now part of the first cohort to sit her GCSE exams in two years. “There was a lot of turmoil. During Covid all my target grades fell,” he said. “When I came back to Year 10 I was in a really bad place, both in terms of my mindset and my academic aspirations. I didn’t have much hope.” She has now secured the grades she needs to study performing arts at Birmingham Ormiston Academy, with a mix of grades 5-9. “I got a nine in history,” he said. “I was never good at maths, but I got a five, broke it in the bin. I am really happy. I did a lot of work.” Oscar dos Santos celebrates his exam results. Photo: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian There were many cheers in the school hall Thursday, but also a few tears from students who didn’t get the grades they were hoping for. The government said it planned to tackle grade inflation and as a result the proportion of top grades in England fell from last year and the overall pass rate also fell. “We’ve been told all year that it’s very possible [grades] it will be higher than 2019, but lower than the previous two years. And we were ready for it,” said Rebecca Bakewell, headteacher of the town’s high school, which is part of the Core Education Trust. “But we’re still incredibly pleased with the grades our young people are getting.” Most students said they felt extra stress when they were the first students to take pre-Covid exams and the first to not receive grades assessed by teachers. Principal Rebecca Bakewell on results day. Photo: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian “I’ll be real, there was a lot of stress with it. We did banter, but it was our first time back to the exam structure since 2019, so it was hard to settle. But we did it,” said Jamil Charles, who scored a mix of fours and fives and went on to study engineering, business and computer science at a local college. “I definitely felt more pressure and everyone was saying the results weren’t going to be as good as last year, so I was worried,” said Shelby Yates, who shot eight 8-9 marks. “That’s why I’m so pleased. I did better than I expected.” Not everyone felt difficult. Jia Le Chen scored an impressive string of eights and nines and hoped to study maths, further maths, physics and computer science at a local sixth form secondary school. “Although, yes, they didn’t have to take the exam last year, but everyone got better results which means there was more competition,” he said. “If we do the exams this year and the grades drop a bit, it means that if I do better, I will stand out more. So I see it as an advantage.” There was no doubt that teaching staff faced a grueling few years educating students during Covid and there is growing anger about the North-South divide, with this year’s results showing growing regional disparities in the top grades. chart The Primary Academy is in an area with high levels of deprivation – half the pupils at the school receive free school meals – but Bakewell said staff had worked hard to ensure pupils were not disadvantaged. “I’m an inner-city manager and I’ll always say the government needs to do more to support our disadvantaged children, wherever they are,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of work with all our kids around their mental health and resilience. On top of that, all of our kids who needed it had one-on-one work on key subjects. We’ve had alumni coaches come in to support, we’ve had bespoke intervention sessions in and around the school day, we’ve done lots of extra things for our young people.” “I have to applaud the teachers. Well done to them because this wouldn’t have happened without them,” said Charles, who was particularly happy to pass maths, which he struggled with. “I’m so happy. Maths was what I was scared of but I did it, I’ve come a long way. My family will be over the moon.”
