Sheffield High in the News

GCSE Record breakers!

Our students’ exam results have once again broken all our previous records at both A-level and GCSE.

At GCSE, a stunning 82% of the grades awarded were A*/A – the best ever at Sheffield High School – and 7% above the previous high, with 74% of our Year 11 girls gaining A* or A grades in all their subjects. The national figure for A*/A grades is just under 22%. Our overall pass rate was 99.3%, compared with the rate nationally of 67%.

Seven of our students gained 10 A* grades at GCSE and 22 students overall achieved nine or ten A* grades in their subjects. Our three youngest students sitting GCSE examinations, aged between 13 and 14, each gained A* grades. Our ‘all 10 A* stars’ were Noor Barotchi, Catherine Bi, Thalia Caddy, Emily Gaines, Henrietta Hill, Lauren Potter and Katie Wensley.

Commenting on the results, Head Valerie Dunsford said: “I am absolutely delighted with these results and I am extremely proud of what the pupils and staff have achieved. With well over half of our students achieving nine A*/A grades at GCSE, the performance of our girls has been quite breathtaking.”
Our ‘Sports Stars’, who notched up their ‘all A star grades’ at GCSE (not surprisingly with PE as one of them) are –

• Lauren Potter who was selected this year not only to play for the England Under 17 Netball Team but also to captain the side in the Under 17 Netball European Championships held in Gibraltar. Lauren came back a very proud captain with a gold medal as the England team took the European title, winning all games! Not only has she just passed with ten A* grades, but she is also celebrating the news that she has just been selected for the England Under 19 training squad!
• Thalia Caddy has managed to achieve ten A stars whilst also training hard on trampolining. She bounced her way to become the runner up in all three rounds of the National Schools Championships and helped the School team to achieve 2nd in the country in the Under 19 category
• Emily Gaines and Katie Wensley (again ten stars-a-piece) are both South Yorkshire Hockey players and were in the school touring party that went to play in Barbados. Katie is also on the South Yorkshire Netball Talent Development Academy

• Noor Barotchi passed her subjects in Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Art & Design, French, English Literature, English Language, Maths, Geography and Arabic

Our performing arts stars are:
• Henrietta Hill is a debating champion who won the North of England Girls’ Day School Trust debating round, qualifying on to the National Finals. She is grade 8 in violin and plays in the School Orchestra. Henrietta passed her ten A stars, one of which was music, taken at the age of 15

• Catherine Bi is also a keen musician, playing piano to grade 7. She passed her ten A stars at GCSE, one of which was also music, taken at the age of 15

All the girls at Sheffield High School who sat an early GCSE examination all passed with A*! The youngest
Sheffield High pupil to pass her early GCSE is Mazarine Yousefpour, aged 12 from Millhouses who passed French at A*. Anastasia Paschali aged 14, from Broomhill passed her Modern Greek at A* and Jenny Guan from Ecclesall, also aged 14, has her A* in Chinese. Our set of young linguists was completed by 15 year old Georgia Azzi getting her A* in Italian.

The Hill sisters achieved straight As – 14 in total between them, following the excellent A-level results last week. Henrietta has completed the Hill family celebrations as she achieved 10 passes in her GCSE examinations – all at A*! Last week Verity discovered that she had passed her A-levels of English Language, Music and Geography with straight A’s with another grade A in AS History and she is now off to study Primary Education at Durham.