Praise for pupils as hard work pays off

THE hard work of this year’s Dromore High School GCSE candidates has paid off with a “depth of performance” principal Mr. John Wilkinson hailed as the best since GCSEs began.

This year’s results, received on Thursday, also revealed a welcome narrowing of the gap between boys and girls, something Dromore High School has been working to address in recent years.

“This year the comparative performance of boys and girls has been similar,” said Mr. Wilkinson, “with the boys under-performing the girls by only five per cent.”

The big picture for Dromore High was painted as one of consistency and further improvement, notably in the number of pupils gaining five or more A*-C grades in subjects including English and Maths.

“We are absolutely delighted with this set of results,” said Mr. Wilkinson. “The depth of performance of our young people is the best since GCSEs began.

“An overall figure of over 70% at five-plus A*-C underlines the school’s consistent performance over the past 10 years.”

He added, “Another area of improvement has been the rise of 10 per cent in the numbers gaining five-plus A*-C including English and Maths. This is significant, as pupils will need both English and Maths to study effectively at post-16.” The GCSE results provided Dromore High with its second cause for celebration within a week, the school’s first batch of A-level students having taken delivery of their AS-level results last Thursday.

Mr. Wilkinson described the results at AS-level - marking the halfway point of pupils’ two-year A-level courses - as “exceptional”, with students well placed to excel in their final year.

Likewise, he said this week, it was from among its successful GCSE candidates that Dromore High expected to enlist the next intake of students to study AS subjects across a choice of 21 courses offered at the school.

“The Governors affirm these (GCSE) results,” he said, “and congratulate the pupils and teachers on their joint performance.

“The young people have worked extremely hard to achieve such good results and they deserve our praise.”

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