News
Woldingham girls celebrate outstanding A level results

Students and staff at Woldingham School are celebrating another year’s excellent crop of A level results, with a 100% pass rate across all subjects.

These latest impressive figures continue the school’s excellent record and reveal that students achieved 100% passes at A and B grades in 16 subjects, and there was a 1% overall improvement in the numbers of A and B grades.

Rather than taking the so-called “soft options”, Woldingham students have performed exceptionally well in the traditionally more difficult subjects such as modern foreign languages, the sciences, history, and critical thinking. Once again, our economics students shine with 100% pass at A/B grade. Mathematics is also particularly strong at Woldingham with 85% of students gaining A/B grades. In further mathematics, the story is even more positive with 88% of students gaining A/B grades. In addition, the geographers have excelled with 100% passes at A/B grades.

***image3:center***A recent statement from the CBI warned that the UK could lose jobs and trade to countries such as China and India unless the uptake of science, languages and mathematics improved. Woldingham girls have risen to that challenge in remarkable style. The continued high grades in these core subjects augurs well for the future of the country and supports the widely held belief that girls achieve excellent results in a wider range of subjects in a single-sex environment. Girls, for instance, are generally under-represented in physics, a subject in which 80% of A level students are male and where the national uptake of people studying physics at A level has slumped by 57%. At Woldingham, physics remains a key strength with a 100% A pass rate for the second year running.

Particular highlights are Catronia Arthur who gained 3 A grades in French, History and Spanish, with distinctions in her advanced extension awards in French and Spanish, and who was awarded a Choral Scholarship to read Mediaeval & Modern foreign languages at Jesus College Cambridge, and local Woldingham resident Victoria Cardona who with 3 straight A grades in History, Spanish and Latin will be off to Newcastle University to study Spanish.

In keeping with the Woldingham tradition of excellence in the performing arts Lizzie Karani from Kenley has won a scholarship to study music at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Headmistress Diana Vernon said: “I am absolutely delighted with these outstanding results which consolidate our position. They reflect a number of personal bests and are a measure of the hard work and commitment of the students as well as the inspiration and dedication of our teaching staff. 

“While we acknowledge the increasing importance of examination results, Woldingham School will continue to strive for excellence in all areas of school life. We place great emphasis on offering an exceptional breadth and balance of life and education. Our aim is to provide an excellent all-round education, developing the girls as individuals and preparing them for life beyond school.”

Summary
• 100% Pass rate overall
• 60.7% A grades
• 87.7% A and B grades
• 94.4% A to C grades
• 40% of candidates with three A grades or more
• Five pupils accepted at Oxford or Cambridge
• 68% of pupils will accept places at the ‘Russell Group Universities
• Over 94% of pupils will go to their first choice university