Brighton College said that its GCSE results were the best ever achieved by any school in Sussex today (Thursday 22 August).
The school said: “The celebrations at Brighton College continued today. Following the school’s record-breaking A-level results last week that placed them as the top independent school in the country, pupils achieved the best ever GCSE results by a Sussex school.
“With an astonishing 94.2 per cent of grades at 9 to 7 (equivalent to A* to A in old grades), and half of all the school’s GCSEs awarded at grade 9, pupils are delighted with their incredible achievements.
“STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects performed exceptionally well at the College, with 98 per cent of pupils gaining grades 9 to 7 and a fantastic 58 per cent achieving grade 9 across biology, chemistry, physics, maths and further maths.
“In a year group that includes international gymnasts and swimmers, England hockey players, England cricketers, Harlequins rugby players and netball, hockey and chess champions, the talents of these pupils seem to know no bounds.”
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research, said in The Times this week that the UK needs an urgent inquiry into the “chronic underperformance” of boys at GCSE which he said should be a “matter of national concern”.
But the school said: “The boys and girls at Brighton College are celebrating equally, with boys receiving 934 grade 9s and 8s and girls receiving 902 at the same grades.
“This shows one of the many benefits of boys and girls learning alongside each other in a co-educational environment.”
The principal of Brighton College, Richard Cairns, said: “These are the best GCSE results in the county ever and will be among the very best in England.
“I am delighted that this remarkable cohort should be my last as head as I move into my new role as principal of the family of schools of Brighton College, of which there are now 11 around the world.
“These spectacular results are entirely due to Brighton creating a culture where it is cool to care about your studies and normal to want to do well.
“That should be the norm in every single school in the land but sadly we know it is not.”
Head master Steve Marshall-Taylor said: “We are very proud of our pupils whose hard work and commitment have really paid off. This is a great moment of celebration for them.
“It is particularly impressive that they have continued to enjoy so many sports and activities, making the most of opportunities outside of the classroom.
“They are the first cohort to enter our sixth form with the new world-class sixth form centre now up and running in the heart of the school.
“We’re excited to see all that they will go on to achieve and to contribute with us in the next two years.”
Impressive. Instead of charging VAT on school fees the Government should be asking schools like this to run teacher training courses for schools in the state sector so they can learn from the exceptional performance of schools like this.
or fund state schools better?
It”d be interesting to see a graph of amount spent per pupil vs grades achived for private schools and state schools. My guess is that state schools offer much better value for what they achieve for their budget. So maybe private schools could learn form state schools how to use resources more effectively? just a thought
Not quite. Many of the worst schools in Brighton have actually the best paid teachers but they have no effective teacher performance management. At Brighton College if a teacher doesn’t cut it they are out as the school can’t afford to sacrifice children’s education in this way for years. The great results aren’t due to the facilities which are great but great teaching where they have a very strong culture of making learning enjoyable and fostering in all kids an obligation to try their hardest. The class sizes are actually also larger than in many local state schools. You can see the same affect in the state school in London with that very famous head teacher that takes most of the kids in from poor local estates. Of course they have a nicer football or rugby pitches but good exam results are the result of excellent teachers and good senior leadership. The other thing they also don’t have is lots of mentally handicapped kids in each class as obviously this also often distracts normal functioning kids. In Brighton state schools average kids are also often not nurtured in the same way to make them excel as SATs results are all about trying to get every kid reach an average and not making the best kids do better.
This is why schools like Brighton College produce great exam results, but schools like St Luke’s, which encourage enthusiasm for learning, produce great adults.