GCSE Results Day 2020

Students at Tarleton Academy have received their GCSE examination results after what has been a unique and challenging time for all Year 11 students across the country. Not only have they had to cope with the stress and anxiety of a global pandemic and so much uncertainty at a pivotal point in their lives, they have also had to forgo the usual secondary school life traditions. School leaders have expressed both pride and admiration at the way they have overcome each of these obstacles. 

Head of School Mark Cunniffe stated: ‘It has been a pleasure to work with Year 11 over the last five years and to watch them grow and blossom as individuals. They forged excellent relationships with each other and our staff, creating a mutually supportive ethos. Despite them being denied the last 6 months of their ‘normal’ schooling, we know that their time at Tarleton Academy will enable all of them to embrace whatever future challenges lie ahead with confidence and positivity. As a school we will continue to work with them for as long as they need us, and they will always remain members of our wider school family’.

Tarleton Academy is a school that makes a point of taking great pride in how well they know their students, both in terms of their many and varied personal qualities, as well as the academic potential that each and every one of them possesses.

Mr Cunniffe went on to say: ‘The students have so much to be proud of, the young people they have grown into is testament to their resilience and hard work amidst the most challenging of times. As a year group, they have always been so much more than the sum of their individual parts and as the next stage of their exciting journeys begin, the staff at Tarleton Academy would like to take this opportunity to wish all our students continued success as they move onto new courses at college or new apprenticeship programmes. Undoubtedly, they will take every opportunity that comes their way and impress in everything they do. To the 'Class of 2020' it has been an honour and a privilege’. 

Graham Pilkington, Chair of the Local Academy Council, stated: 'On behalf of the councillors, I would like to express our immense pride in all our Year 11 students and how well they have coped with the challenges that the last two terms have brought.  We applaud their hard work and dedication. We would also like to thank all the staff who have worked alongside the Year 11 students throughout the last five years, which has helped them deal with this challenging period'

Mrs Gwinnett, the Executive Head at the school and the overall leader of Endeavour Learning Trust, of which Tarleton Academy was the founder school, told us: ‘Despite much national uncertainty regarding the GCSE grades, and all things considered, we feel that these results are a fair set of grades. We underwent a rigorous process to moderate the original teacher assessed grades which evolved into the Centre Assessed Grades, using the careful advice we were given not to overinflate their potential. We fully appreciate that there was never going to be a perfect solution to how these students were going to be assessed this year, but we were in a very good position as a school, due to very strong prior performance that has placed Tarleton in the top 20% of schools nationally for the last three years.

We are delighted that the vast majority of our students have more than enough to enable them to take up the destinations they have applied for and I have no doubt some of them may even be able to aspire to higher level courses/apprenticeships than they originally considered, now their grades have been confirmed. We have been very careful to guide our students towards courses and apprenticeships at which they will excel, regardless of the grades they have now received and we wish them every success in the future’.