STUDENTS at a Welsh medium school in Gwent have been successful in securing places at their preferred universities after A-level results were published.
Ysgol Gymraeg Gwynllyw, in Pontypool, said all of its students had gained their first choice university places.
Among those celebrating were Mali Wood who gained four A* grades and will now head to Oxford to study music. She said: “I really want to follow my passion for music and become a musician.”
Classmate Callum Negrotti, who got A* to C grades, will study astrophysics and cosmology at King’s College, London and is aiming for the stars.
He said: “I’m delighted I got into King’s – I want to become an astrophysicist and hopefully work for NASA one day.”
Headteacher Mark Jones praised the efforts of students who were facing their first external examinations, due to Covid having disrupted education since 2020.
He said: “It’s a pleasure to see all our Year 13 learners have managed to gain their first-choice places at university.
“Considering this is the first year that students have sat external examinations due to Covid, it’s pleasing to note that the impact on their results has been minimal. I wish them all the best in their future endeavours.”
At Coleg Gwent, which includes the Torfaen Learning Zone in Cwmbran, 97 per cent of A-Level students achieved between A* and E grades, while 88 per cent of BTEC students achieved a pass grade or higher across 48 different vocational subjects.
In Monmouthshire the impact of the pandemic on the education of the students who were collecting results today was also noted by the cabinet member for education, Martyn Groucutt.
He said: “These are students who did not sit their GCSEs due to the pandemic and the outcomes that they achieve today are testament to their resilience and dedication – and of course the excellent teaching alongside the support and care by all of the staff in our four secondary schools.”
Cllr Groucutt who also sits on the Welsh Joint Education Committee said he thought results across Wales have shown progress: “It looks as if we are halfway between last year’s results and the last year pre-pandemic, 2019, which is where we want to be.”
At the independent Haberdashers’ Monmouth Schools students have taken exams with English exam boards, where grading has returned to how it was carried out pre-2020 as opposed to Wales and Northern Ireland that have had a more gradual approach to returning to the grading system in use before the pandemic.
Results across both the girls and boys’ school saw 38.5 per cent of grades at A*-A which is above the 27.2 average across the three countries.
