Impressive A Level Performance for Wells Cathedral School Pupils
Despite the complexity surrounding this year’s A level results day, pupils at Wells Cathedral School had much to celebrate, with an excellent set of A level results achieved by this year’s cohort and the majority of pupils offered places at their preferred institutions. The overall pass rate was 100 per cent, the highest ever pass rate at the School. Well over three quarters achieved grades A* to B; almost half achieved grades A* to A (compared to a national average figure of 38.1 per cent); and 21 per cent gained the top A* grade.
Over a quarter of pupils achieved all A* and A grades, and half of the entrants achieved AAB grades or better. 18 pupils achieved two or more A* grades.
Five pupils will go on to study at Oxbridge, where they will read a diverse variety of subjects. Four have places at the University of Oxford: Rosa Bonnin to read Music at Trinity College, Jane Lee from the 2019 cohort to read Music at Jesus College, Hugo Spindler to read French at Oriel College and Megan Taylor to read Earth Sciences at St Anne’s College. Gabrielle Desalbres from the 2019 cohort will read History at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Emma Greenshields will proceed with her studies of Veterinary Science at the University of Edinburgh, while Alys Skinner will read Medicine at the University of Liverpool. With almost two thirds of Wells pupils gaining places at Russell Group universities to study a wide range of subjects, from Anthropology to Engineering, History of Art to Astrophysics, this cohort will follow fascinating and varied academic paths.
Many Wells pupils will continue with their musical studies at the country’s internationally famous Music Colleges, where a large number have won significant financial awards. In the UK, Wells musicians have received over 60 offers to continue with their instrumental studies at top Conservatoires, and globally pupils have offers at The Norwegian Academy of Music and The Sibelius Academy, part of the University of the Arts Helsinki.
Of particular note are the following pupils, who have received multiple financial scholarships to celebrated institutions such as the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music: Charlotte Arthur (saxophone), Janis Chan (violin), Howard Chiu (viola), Howard Lee (bassoon), Ella Leonard (oboe), Eliza Talman (trumpet), Hannah Williams (French horn) and Danni Woodnutt (trumpet).
Wells’ pupils have received excellent results across a wide variety of subjects this year, with particularly high performances in French, Latin, Art, Mathematics, Music, History, Geography and English Literature.
In Mathematics well over half the cohort achieved A* or A grades (80 per cent in Further Mathematics), with 50 per cent of pupils gaining the top two grades in Geography, 53 per cent gaining the top two grades in English Literature and two thirds of historians gaining A* or A grades. In French and Latin the whole cohort achieved A* or A grades.
On the creative side, half of pupils taking History of Art or Photography achieved an A* or A grade, two thirds of those taking Art gained the top two grades, and 58 per cent of those who studied Music achieved the top two grades.
Head Master, Alastair Tighe, said, “At the end of what has been a very different final academic year for our Upper Sixth, these results are a wonderful testament to the ability and, above all, dedication and hard work of our pupils and their teachers. Our pupils in particular have had to cope with so much in the last few months, and have demonstrated resilience and commitment throughout. They can all feel collectively very proud of their achievements, not only academically but also in an impressive array of other vitally important co-curricular activities and endeavours. My colleagues and I are very proud of them and wish them all well for the exciting years ahead.”
