This year we entered our largest cohort of students ever for A levels and managed to sustain our commitment to allowing every one of our students who wants one a place at Wallingford Sixth Form.

We have many departments that have really excelled themselves. This is the consequence of extremely hard work given the scale of curriculum reforms with which teachers and students have had to contend.

At the top end four students from Wallingford School will be starting courses at Oxbridge this year and a quarter of all A level exams sat were A or A*.

It is really impressive that, as a group, the young people who sat exams from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who received bursaries did remarkably well. A disadvantaged student at Wallingford does as well, on average, as their non-disadvantaged counterparts nationally. The same applies to students designated as having Special Educational Needs.

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 fifth year in a row. Given the scale of reforms that have been made to A levels that is a real testimony to the quality and hard work of the teachers involved.

For A Levels:                                  2018

Number of pupils:                         112

% of entries A* to A:                    25

% entries A* to B:                        56

% entries A* to E                          99

A lot of young people and their families will be very happy today and deservedly so.