Sixth Form News
- Category: Sixth Form News
Some of our Sixth Form students visited the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford on Monday morning, where they got the chance to separate a mixture of organic and inorganic substances and then identify the components using: flame tests, thin layer chromatography, IR spectroscopy, melting point determination and proton-NMR. All bar one group identified the two components in their mixtures correctly!
- Category: Sixth Form News
This year we entered our largest ever cohort of students and achieved our best ever A Level and BTEC results. We also managed to sustain our commitment to giving a place at Wallingford Sixth Form to every one of our students who wanted one, and did not withdraw anyone because they were not heading towards impressive grades.
Two headlines that we are especially pleased with are:
- 66% of A Levels were at grade B or higher. That is the best result we have ever had and staff have delivered that with the harder reformed A Level courses.
- 100% of A Levels sat were passed, which was achieved without withdrawing any students either at the end of Year 12 or after the mock examinations. This is the first time we have ever managed this and shows a strong commitment to helping those who struggle with A Levels.
We have no departments in the bottom 25% for value-added nationally. 15 out of 18 are significantly above national average, with 10 subjects in the top 25%. Many departments have really excelled themselves.
It rather looks as if the students’ achievements will place them in the top 20% or so for value-added. That would be for the sixth year in a row.
A record this year is especially impressive. The students and their families always deserve considerable credit for the way they go about their studies and support students. This year, perhaps the staff deserve more of the plaudits. It would be easy in a year of significant change to take the foot off the accelerator. That the teachers put the students first and improved things still further speaks very highly of their care and professionalism.
For A Levels: 2018 2019
Number of pupils: 112 121
% of entries A* to A: 25 25
% entries A* to B: 56 66
% entries A* to E 99 100
Our vocational courses have done well also. There are no subjects with value-added in the bottom 25% with 6 of 9 adding considerable value compared to students on vocational courses elsewhere. Particular praise goes to Health and Social Care and Applied Science who have done an especially impressive job. Our vocational offer served 50 students who are not entirely suited to the way A Levels are learned.
- Category: Sixth Form News
Our Year 12 Product Design students have been working closely with Rainbow Pre-School to design and make a variety of educational aids to be used inside and outside by the children.
The large alphabet letters and numbers have been permanently fixed in various positions around the playground area, and smaller hand held versions have been created for classroom use.
All letters and numbers were cut out using CAD/CAM in school, sanded down to make them safe and then individually hand painted.
- Category: Sixth Form News
On Monday, Year 12 art students met local artist and designer Fay Ford in her garden studio. Fay is opening her studio this year as part of Oxfordshire Artweeks, so we took advantage to give our young artists the opportunity to ask Fay about her work, the techniques she uses, and what it's like working as a designer.
Fay has worked as a textile designer and illustrator. She now splits her time between designing for fabric collections and producing illustrated work on commission.
The students saw how Fay works, painting by hand and manipulating design elements with a computer, with examples of the complete design process. They got to see how a textile design evolves, from initial sketches to final printed fabric, and how illustrations evolve from the first ideas to a printed book or framed picture. Our young artists also got to quiz Fay on what it's like working in her field and the path she took from an A-Level art student to seeing her work on display in shops in the West End.
As well as Oxfordshire Artweeks, you'll can see some of Fay's work in the Wallingford Bookshop and at fayford.com.
- Mr Bowen
- Category: Sixth Form News
Yesterday some of our A level Musicians attended a workshop of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in Bristol. This was then followed by an evening performance in English. This has never been available before and is a fantastic opportunity to gain a practical insight into the set work by Tessitoura, an opera company led by Dr Steven Kings (composer, conductor and pianist based in Bristol), Charlotte Monk (an experienced director of operas for Bristol Opera) and Anre Kovac who is conducting his 5th production of the Marriage of Figaro.
Marriage of Figaro is one of our set areas of study and it gave a unique and memorable insight into the workings of the piece and the opportunity to see the final performance.
Ms Hammond said, "It was a wonderful insight into Mozart's mind...with Dr Kings stopping the vocalists on stage and explaining in detail what was happening in the music. Then the evening performance was accompanied by professional musicians in an orchestra."
Students appreciated the opportunity too:
"Time flew watching a 3 hour opera, because I was so engaged with what was going on!"
"I understand the story now and the workshop helped me understand the key points in the music."
"I felt I was in the opera, we were so close!"