Another year of record GCSE results for Manchester schools

Schools across Manchester are celebrating another crop of bumper results today as provisional results show that this year more than half of all pupils in the city's schools achieved five or more GCSEs

The proportion of pupils achieving this benchmark standard has risen again this year to 51 per cent - up from 45.7 per cent last year.

This means that over the last five years there has been a significant improvement in results across the city of almost 19 per cent.

Several schools have seen their own significant improvements with some outstanding performances from individual pupils.

Results at The Barlow High School have risen by 14 per cent this year, with 69 per cent of pupils gaining five or more A*-C including English and maths - up from 55 per cent last year. High achieving pupils at the school include 13 year old Niamh Sharkey-Milum who got a grade A after sitting her Maths GCSE three years early.

At Parrs Wood High School 63 per cent of pupils got five or more A*-C including English and maths - up four per cent from 57 per cent last year. Fourteen pupils at the school managed to achieve ten or more A* in their exams. High fliers included Head Girl Rebecca Grant who achieved 14 A* and 1 BTEC qualification, and Georgia McMahon who got 9 A* and 4 A grades.

St Peter's RC High School saw 64 per cent of pupils gaining five or more A*-C including English and maths - up 9 per cent from 55 per cent last year. Successful pupils included Franco Chan who got a string of As and A* as well as an A* grade in A level maths that he sat two years early.

At Trinity High School results were up by nine per cent on last year with 68 per cent of pupils gaining five or more A*-C grades.

Loreto High School saw improvements of ten per cent on last year with 51 per cent of pupils gaining five or more A*-C grades.

Meanwhile over at King David High School 88 per cent of pupils got five or more A*-C grades including English and maths - up from 84 per cent last year.

Councillor Afzal Khan, Executive Member, Children's Services, Manchester City Council, said: "More than half of all pupils in the city's schools are now achieving five or more good GCSEs including English and maths, and this is really good news.

"It's a testament to the hard work of pupils and schools, and the support of parents.

"It reflects the strong focus on improvement across our schools and also the impact we are starting to see of pupils being taught in fantastic new 21st century school buildings, thanks to our £500m BSF and Academy programme over the last five years.

"This is a good time to be at a school in Manchester. It looks like our results are continuing to improve year on year at a faster rate than schools nationally and I want to congratulate all those who have got their results today and wish them every success in the future."