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Students in St Patrick’s College, Ballymena are celebrating their best ever GCSE results this year.

This was the first set of GCSE exams to take place since the onset of the pandemic, and the last year that the Year 12 students had a year uninterrupted by lockdowns or Covid was their second year.

Particular congratulations this year go to Connor Macauley, who has achieved an amazing 11 GCSEs, all at A*-B grades. Another 20 students have achieved ten GCSE passes at A*-C, with a further twenty students achieving between seven and nine GCSE passes, with a significant proportion of all these grades being A* or A.

Seven subjects – Drama, English Literature, Irish, Polish, Prince’s Trust, OCN Religious Studies and Sport – are celebrating 100% performance at A*-C grades. 95% of ICT grades, 94% of Home Economics (Food & Nutrition), 84% of Art & Design, 82% of Performing Arts and 80% of

St Patrick’s College Principal, Dr Martin Knox, with (l-r) Augusteena Augustine and Cristian Pavel. Augusteena and Cristian have achieved two of the school’s highest average scores across all of their GCSE grades, with most of their results achieved at A* or A grade.

Construction grades were achieved at A*-C, while other subject areas which have seen A*-C performance of over 70% include Business & Communication Systems, English Language, Home Economics (Child Development), Learning for Life & Work, Religious Studies and Science.

Dr Knox congratulated all of the school’s Year 12 students on their hard work and success. ‘This has been another very demanding year for all of us in education, and these results are the culmination of a great deal of hard work on the parts of both students and teachers. I congratulate all of the

students, as well as their teachers, who have worked hard to accurately reflect the ability, effort and success of the students. I would also like to thank the parents of the young people, for the encouragement and support they have provided to their children during the two years of their examinations, and particularly during the difficult circumstances we have had during the pandemic, as our young people coped with the uncertainty of lockdown periods and then readjusted to being

back in school.

Just some of the St Patrick’s students who have achieved at least eight GCSEs at A*-C

‘We are proud of the successes of all of our GCSE pupils, who between them in Year 12 have achieved 14 A* grades, 45 A’s, 210 B’s, 104 C* and 116 C grades. These are excellent results from students who, in many cases, had enrolled in St Patrick’s College five years ago with their confidence severely dented by the Transfer procedure.

‘I am sure their achievements will give our GCSE students the confidence and encouragement to go on to further success at A level. ‘I want to recognise the achievement of our students across all courses, including a number of applied courses delivered in school, and also the Occupational Studies courses delivered in the Northern Regional College. The outcomes from all of these courses have been excellent.

‘Overall, these results give us great confidence as a school as we continue to ensure that the students leaving St Patrick’s do so with the highest qualifications they can possibly achieve.”

Best ever GCSE exam results at St Patrick’s College