Cheltenham Bournside students celebrate GCSE success

There were happy scenes at Cheltenham Bournside school as this year’s 260 GCSE students' results were revealed and students celebrated their excellent successes.  

Headteacher Steve Jefferies said: “After our fantastic, record breaking A’ level results last week, we are delighted that Cheltenham Bournside School has achieved the best set of GCSE results based on exams taken by students since the revised qualifications were introduced in 2017. 

“Our 2022 results even compare favourably with the results from 2020 and 2021 when grades were set through teachers’ assessments. The average grade gained overall was over a grade 5.  

“Nationally, the pass rate (grade 4 or above) is 73.2% so we’re really proud at Bournside to have achieved an overall pass rate of 76.6%. 

 “We are also delighted to see an unprecedented number of the highest grades with more students than ever gaining grades 8 or 9.   

“We’re incredibly proud of our students who have worked through two very difficult years to achieve these results.  Although comparisons with previous years will be a cause for debate, what’s not in doubt is that these young people have coped excellently with a great deal of disruption to their education. 

“Among the celebration of great overall results, there are some individual performances which really stand out:  

• Kit Maslin gained ten GCSEs at grade 8 and 9 
• Caitlin Duncan was awarded nine GCSEs graded at 8 or 9 
• Toby Williams and Charlie Millard both gained 10 GCSEs with eight graded at 8 or 9 
• Phoebe Barnes and Molly Littlewood achieved seven grades 8 and 9 
• Finlay Slater and Erik Sucksmith both earned six grade 9s among their 10 GCSEs  
• Freya Webb earned five 9s from her 10 GCSEs. 

“While there’s always lots of talk in the media about benchmarks and grades going up and down, what really matters is that these results reflect the hard work and talents of our fantastic students of whom we are very proud.”