Does anyone know what this years GCSE results were like at St Christopher School Letchworth?

[Mumof4fromletchworth]

Hi,does anyone have a child or know one who just got their GCSEs at St Chris Letchworth this summer? I've got four little ones,and am going to the open day soon having heard mixed reports about the school,but overall good. I'm worried because my neighbour's son who has been there since he was young,and who is bright,did really disappointingly in his GCSEs,and his parents are withdrawing him. I know that I'm far off GCSEs,but this is an important consideration for the future,specially,as my neighbour pointed out,when you're paying £5000 + a term in school fees per child you expect a good education! My neighbour's son has not been very forthcoming about how his friends did and oddly,on the school website there's no mention of this year's GCSE results,nor was there in the local press,although all the other LGC schools put their results in. Anyone know? General ideas on the academic success in this school?

whilst I don't know this school you will find a lot of schools will not release this information yet as they may be waiting on remarks/re-moderation. Best idea is to actually call them and ask

It is not an academic school, though, is it? I know people who have withdrawn girls after year 6 because they were fairly bright. There are better senior schools, but this will suit if you want small and not too pushy. That's their philosophy and most bright children don't go there as there are plenty more academic schools within reach.

Thanks for that,I have heard that it's wasn't too academic in the past,but that it had picked up. Good to hear your thoughts. I was surprised by how poorly this child had done in his GCSEs?considering he seemed to work hard. Maybe the teaching is very relaxed? Think I'll go to the open day and ask what their results are like,as well as get a feel for the place!

Definitely go to the Open Day, don't even consider the GCSE results of one isolated child - who may be appallingly lazy, entitled or work-shy. Obviously, he may not be any of those things but the fact that he is unforthcoming about his friends' results suggests that he may have underperformed in comparison to them.

School may well not have had time to put up this year's results yet. Just checked DS1's school website which (apparently) was in the Top 5 comps nationally for GCSE results - not a whisper about it on the website and they didn't have any info in the local papers on the day.

LOTS of schools are not realeasing till Eng Lang sorted (as its integral to EVERY league table measure)

Thanks for all your thoughts,interesting about the English,I know that a few kids from St Christopher failed that one this year. I'm sure that lots of parents will be asking at the open day.

St Chris' is (in my limited knowledge) more about the pastoral and all round education than an exam factory - depends what you want I guess. Its horses for courses.

I agree that the school has a good reputation for pastoral care,which is what attracts me to it for my children. My hope is that bright kids can also do well there,at least get decent GCSEs,specially in English and Maths,which is why I'm wondering if anyone out there has a child in the school who achieved well in exams this year?

I'd say bright kids do better in the senior school. In the junior school we have had to push and push to get homework that was not very easy, and sadly the teachers are very hit or miss with some old fixtures that never do anything new or challenging. I have many friends with kids in the senior school, and the motivated ones do well because there are a lot of good opportunities there. But if they are not the motivated types it doesn't go as well, with several parents told their children were doing fine until just before GCSEs, when suddenly things were dire, and it was insinuated they might do better elsewhere. And people spoke about how in the last couple of years several bright children whose parents teach at the school really brought up exam results, but I don't know that firsthand. But the pastoral care is good, no doubt.

Here you go:

Our examination results in the Summer were very pleasing. At A-level the pass rate was 100%, which is exceptional given that standards are so high this year. G gained two A’s and an A which enables him to go to Durham University to read Engineering. H also gained 2 A’s and an A. S did very well to gain 2 A grades and one A grade that gained him a place at Cambridge to read Medicine; and J gained 3 A Grades and an A which has gained him a place at Imperial College London to read Computer Science.

At GCSE again we had a 100% pass rate. 90% of all grades were A-C. There were some fantastic individual performances including ten pupils gaining 11 straight A/A grades. Although these headline achievements are impressive we were delighted for everyone.

(This is from the school newsletter, I have deleted the children's names.)

DD2 is there, and doing very well indeed. She is bright and motivated, and is being pushed by the school. I don't think the teaching is relaxed, but it isn't an exam factory - they do stress educating the whole child, not just pushing them through exams. DD2 is absolutely thriving there.

I think those results are pretty good for a school which isn't really selective.

Not surprised your motivated daughter is doing well there, that's exactly the sort of student I think it suits. I don't think they do as well for some other children, but unquestionably some children do really well there!

And the opinion seems to be that the senior school is much better than the junior school, including from parents who are senior school teachers who have/had children in the junior school.

I have a brighter kid in the junior school and it has been like pulling teeth to not get the same maths topics gone over again year after year. My experience, as well as some other parents with whom I have discussed this is that the junior school is much better at helping needs than they are with children who are able. A parent told me today he was infuriated that his English G&T child's only enrichment was the addition of a book club. Can't say that I blame him, and especially at those fees; you do really need to push and stay on top of them for able children in the junior school anyway.

That's a bit crap, Sara, I really sympathise.

DD2 came from an American school, where she got a hell of a lot of homework that she didn't want to do (she used to do it on the school bus, then get detention because it was incomplete/illegible), and it was a real struggle to get her to do it. Now, she seems much more focused and is working hard. The school seems to suit her really well. We chose it in a very unorthodox fashion, too - her criteria for a school were that it should have no uniform, not be single sex, not religious and have a good art department, which narrowed the choice somewhat! They were also very good at helping her to adjust to a different curriculum, particularly in maths, which is taught very differently in the US system, and also in Spanish, which she had never learned before.

Those are some tough criteria to satisfy! :-) I'm glad she's doing well.

Even though we've been told that the senior school is better than the junior (and junior seems to also been having somewhat of a leadership crisis, which makes it hard to improve, I think), I'm not sure we are ready for the leap of faith after the difficulties we've had, so they're not off our list, but we are definitely looking at others, especially more academic but non-exam-factories.