Hammersmith Students Celebrate Impressive A Level Results

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Heads praise pupils at William Morris Sixth Form and West London Free School

William Morris Sixth Form students L-R: Hanna Mehari, 19, Seltene Hans, 19, Faryal Siddiqui, 18 and Ahmed Bedier, 19

Students at Hammersmith secondary schools are celebrating after achieving impressive A Level results.

Across the borough, 24% of pupils received marks of A* or A, with 140 A* grades were awarded in local schools.

H&F's overall pass rate is 96% this year – just one point behind the national average of 97%.

At William Morris Sixth Form in St Dunstan's Road, principal Matthew Coulbeck was delighted with his students’ performance, with a 95% overall pass rate – up 3% on last year.

Students also achieved 'fantastic’ results for BTECs – the work-related vocational courses – with 86% attaining distinction to merit grades.

The results for the sixth form collega, which this year has celebrated its silver anniversary, are all the more impressive because of the diverse background of its students. Over the last 25 years its roll call has grown from 200 students to nearly 900, including refugee students, young people from all over the world and some who do not have English as a first language.

Some of those receiving their results this year were affected by the Grenfell fire.

"I want to applaud our students for their hard work; 100% of our students have achieved results this year, and it’s down to their efforts, and those of our teachers who have really gone the extra mile, doing extra drop-in sessions after the regular school hours," said Matthew.

He was also pleased with a 5% rise in A-C grades to 60%, and with the BTEC outcomes, where changes to the exam structure make the overall 86% distinction rate even more impressive.

The college has introduced mixed BTEC courses, for example combining media and IT, or business and media.

Iman Khamisi, 19, pictured here with her friend Thana McKinley, achieved an A in sociology, a B for her dissertation and a merit in applied science, and is now heading for Kent to study law.

Nabeel Jathol, 18, is planning to study economics at his top choice of Queen Mary's University in East London with an A* in sociology, A in economics and A in philosophy under his belt, and Fulham student Nermeen Ali, 18, is off to study pharmacy at UCL, having scored an A* in maths and A in chemistry and biology.

"Teenagers sometimes get a bad press," said Matthew, who has been at William Morris since joining as a teacher on the day it opened. "But they’re focused and they’re harder working than ever. They often don’t get the credit they deserve."

At King Street's West London Free School, 30% of students achieved A*-A grades, and 76% gained A*-C. 13% of students achieved exclusively A* and A grades.

More than 90% of sixth-formers will be going on to university - a figure set to rise as several are applying for places through clearing, and and over 60% will be studying at Russell Group universities.

“We had three Oxbridge successes," said delighted headteacher Clare Wagner. "We have one student going to Cambridge to study natural sciences at St John’s College, and have two students going up to Oxford, one to read classics and the other to read human sciences."

Other students will be studying medicine at Bristol and Queen Mary’s, history, maths, engineering, politics, international relations and English at Bristol, astrophysics at St Andrew’s, theology at Edinburgh, law at Nottingham and Manchester, and economics at UCL.

West London Free School student Lawrence Wu with his A Level results

"Many of our students have met their offers from their first or second choice of university and are going to study a wide range of subjects such as history of art, psychology, music and computer science,” said Clare.

Art students at WLFS have also excelled, gaining places on art foundation courses at prestigious universities and colleges.

"I am extremely proud of these successes, which are undoubtedly due to the hard work of the students, the expertise and dedication of the staff here and the strong academic classical liberal ethos that is at the heart of the school," said Clare.

"Several of our students are the first in their family to go to university; a fact of which we are particularly proud."

Cllr Larry Culhane, H&F Cabinet Member for Children & Education, congratulated all of the borough’s schools and said he hoped this year’s A-level and BTEC outcomes would enable teenagers to achieve their full potential.

" Every result is an individual triumph for students, who do our borough proud in so many ways, and reflects the hard work they have put in over two years, and the support they’ve received from teachers, school staff, family and friends," he said.

"I’d like to congratulate all our students and wish them well – wherever their results take them, and whatever they go on to achieve in life, we're behind them all the way."

August 16, 2019