NEWSLETTER www.cowesec.org info@cowesec.org
Friday 7th September
Dear parents and carers, A warm welcome back and a special welcome to parents of Year 7 students who are becoming part of the CEC community for the first time. We enjoyed welcoming our Year 7s to the academy with their family breakfast and were delighted to see so many parents that morning. The new cohort has settled in to life at our academy very quickly. They understand our expectations, are looking smart and finding their way around the building with maturity and determination. Thank you to the Year 8-13 students who have been supportive, providing assistance and direction. It is noteworthy that all our students have started the year in superb uniform and I would like to personally thank all parents for their support with this. You may have seen news reports of our excellent summer exam results this year. I would like to congratulate all our 2017-18 Year 11 and 13 students on their successes. There was real joy in the academy on the two results days and students really have excelled. At A Level, students have achieved university places to Cambridge and a raft of other Russell Group universities. We are delighted that students have been successful in gaining places to study medicine in particular and that the very vast majority of students move on to exciting next steps in their future. At GCSE we celebrated our best ever results for the fourth year running. Despite the challenges posed by new tougher GCSEs this year and a new grading system across all subjects, students improved again on the previous year’s excellent results, with strong progress shown across key subjects. Overall, over three-quarters of students (76%) achieved a Grade 4 or higher in both English and Mathematics, with a 4 set by the Government as a benchmark pass. This was up on last year’s figure of 65%. Additionally, 50% of students achieved above a Grade 5 (defined as a strong pass) in both subjects, up from 41% in 2017 and well above expected national average. Whilst there was strong progress across the board, this was particularly evident in our English results, where a remarkable 89% of students achieved a Grade 4 or above, significantly above the national average and up 14 percentage points from last year. Notably, 72% of students received a Grade 5 or above in the subject. In Maths, 78% of pupils were awarded a Grade 4 or above, up five percentage points on last year. Additionally, 55% of pupils scored a strong Grade 5 or above. Impressive improvements were also made in Science and Humanities. A significant number of students achieved at least one Grade 9, the new top grade with an equivalence to a very high A*. One standout success story came from a student who was awarded no less than 8 Grade 9s and overall 52 Grade 9s were achieved by our students. We are thrilled to see so many students return to us in Year 12, where they will receive high quality teaching and excellent support from our dedicated sixth form team. This term I will be continuing to hold parent surgeries twice weekly on a Tuesday afternoon from 1pm – 2.30pm and from 3.30pm – 5.30pm to enable parents to meet with me personally. Attendance is by pre-booked appointments only. Please either email dharrison@cowesec.org or phone the school on 01983 203103 asking for Donna Harrison to book in a slot in advance of each Tuesday. Rachel Kitley