SCHOOL students throughout the Forest and Wye Valley are celebrating after learning their fate in GCSE exams – and for most schools the pass rate is climbing higher, with boys narrowing the gap on girl top performers.
While it isn't possible to list all sucesses in the Review's circulation area, congratulations are in order for the majority of students, added on to recent outstanding A-level results.
For the second year in succession Heywood Community School expects to be placed in the top five of secondary schools in the county for its GCSE achievement of 5 A* to C grades per pupil against predictions of performance when the pupils entered school.
Using a value added system the year 11 students, with almost 46 per cent gaining five A* to C grades, have outperformed the expectations of the local education authority by 17 per cent.
Head teacher Geoff Tinker said he was "delighted " for all the young people and attributed their success to hard work and the expertise and dedication of staff.
Whitecross School in Lydney has had yet another excellent set of GCSE results. From a total of 1,330 exam entries for 157 students a total of 24 A* grades were achieved in a range of subjects.
Most students took at least nine subjects and quite a few 10, with the school's average of five or more passes at grades A* to C being maintained at 51 per cent.
Outstanding was Wyedean School in Sedbury where more than 70 per cent topped grade C – 62.2 per cent of students gained at least five A* to C grades and the overall pass rate was 99.5 per cent.
Monmouthshire students have achieved pass rates of more than 90 per cent for every subject area in this year's exams.
The overall pass rate for exams taken with the Welsh Joint Education Committee was 97.6 per cent.