Celebrations for local students as A levelresults are published

Lisburn principals were delighted with the performance of their pupils and praised them for their hard work throughout the year.

Dr Seamus Quinn, Principal at St Patrick’s Academy, Lisburn, said the success in the local region was due to the “outstanding quality of teaching.”

Dr Quinn commented: “The community of St Patrick’s Academy is delighted and very proud of all our A level students. Once again the hard work and dedication of our Academicians has produced outstanding results. For the eighth year running St Patrick’s A level pass rate is 100% with 70% of our students achieving the highest grades of either A* or A this year.

“Our success is due to the quality of individual care provided within the school, our focus on academic excellence and the outstanding quality of teaching. As the Area plans published in the summer revealed St Patrick’s Academy, with the other successful Lisburn schools, will play a pivotal role in continuing to improve education outcomes for all children in the Lagan Valley region.”

Elizabeth Dickson, Principal of Friends’ School, said there was a shared delight in School at the high standard of results at Advanced level, the best overall performance to date in the school. She commented: “There had again been a 100% pass rate at Grades A to E and it was notable that 84% of all grades awarded were at Grade B or above. Year 13 pupils at Friends’ had also performed very strongly at AS level, setting down a firm foundation for their A level year.”

Mrs Dickson said that all of the pupils and their parents could be rightly proud of what had been achieved. She said the Sixth Formers leaving Friends’ deserved credit for their hard work alongside their active involvement in the wider life of the school community. Members of staff joined in congratulating the leavers on their success and in wishing them well for the future as they look forward to the next stage of their careers.

Jim Sheerin, Principal of Lisnagarvey High School said that the pupils parents and staff are delighted with the A level results for 2012. He commented: “Once again the school has A level results above the Northern Ireland average

for secondary schools and two thirds of our students have the requisite grades to go onto their University of choice.

“This continued success is a result of the hard work and dedication of pupils and staff. Our students have shown a great deal of commitment coming into school in the evenings and Easter holidays to maintain and improve their grades. Well done to all of them and deserved congratulations, we wish them well for their future.”

Mr Andrew Gibson, Principal of Hunterhouse College, said that once again he was very pleased with this year’s A Level grades. “I would like to congratulate all our pupils on their achievements. Our results are the highest since 2008 and show an increase in over 10% on last year. Praise must go to all of our pupils for the hard work they put into attaining these grades and also to the staff of the school and to the parents of our pupils who will all have supported the girls in preparing them so well for the examinations. We wish all our pupils the very best as they move on to the next stage of their education or working life,” he said.

There was another very successful year of A2 and AS results at Wallace, where five students successfully met their Oxbridge offers.

Principal Deborah O’Hare, said she was able to report another very pleasing set of A2 results and AS results at Wallace. She paid tribute to the efforts of those young people who worked hard, their teachers and supportive parents.

“With competition for university places growing each year we are delighted that all five of our Upper Sixth leavers who had offers from Oxford and Cambridge have met the challenging grades set,” Mrs O’Hare commented. “Congratulations to Hannah Gardiner who goes to Oxford to study Law, to Helen Lavery to Cambridge to study Law, to Oliver Rusk to Cambridge to study Archaeology and Anthropology, to Ben Thompson to Cambridge to study Modern and Mediaeval Languages and to Kathryn Wardil who is heading to Cambridge to study Music.”

A large number of the Upper Sixth Leavers performed exceptionally well with 29 students achieving 3 or more A*/A.

The school is also celebrating some of its best AS results to date with an impressive 32 members of Lower Sixth achieving 3 or more A grades. This is the school’s highest 3+ A – C percentage on record, an improvement of 13% on last year’s Lower Sixth.

This year group, well supported by the school’s pastoral team and subject teachers achieved record GCSE results and now record AS results.

There was great success for students Laurelhill Community College as over 90% of Sixth Formers are leaving the College this academic year with two or more A Levels.

Principal James Martin commented: “This is an excellent springboard into Higher Education, training and employment. The College wishes them every success in their future pathways.

“In our BTEC Sport course, all students gained Distinctions or higher, In our BTEC Performing Arts course, 65% of students gained Distinctions or higher. In our Art A Level course, 80% of students A-C grades and 100% of our A Level Music students gained A–C at A2 Level.

“Our pupils have performed exceptionally well, former Head Girl, Hannah Boyd was celebrating with grades A, B, C. Other successes are indicative of the quality education in the College with one student another gaining A, B, B. C. Many of our pupils are now looking forward to studying at university level, with students leaving the College to study Sports Journalism, Business Studies and Midwifery. Many students have chosen to follow their dreams by accepting places on competitive BTEC and HND courses including Information Technology, Music and Sport.

“At AS Level, students gained excellent results with Ashley Bowers gaining B,B,B, Giles Carey gaining B,B,C and Chloe Armstrong gaining A,B,C. We look forwards to all pupils repeating these grades at A2 Level.

“The College congratulates all of its pupils on excellent results.”

• Picture special in this week’s Ulster Star.