Milton Keynes 'A' Levels Hit New High

10.50.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 18th Sep 2007

Students and staff across Milton Keynes are celebrating the excellent results in this year's "A" level examinations. More students have gained higher grades and the overall pass rate has risen for the ninth year running - it is now 98%. Two-thirds of the passes were grades A-C.

This achievement reflects the hard work of the students and the skilled professionalism of their teachers. Students have an increasingly wide choice of subjects and courses, which enable them to progress to a diverse range of opportunities in further and higher education. As an example, a student from Walton High achieved 5 A grades and has secured one of the few places on a course to read Meteorology run jointly by Reading and Oklahoma universities.

At Denbigh school there was a 60% increase in the number of A grades. The results in Biology, Mathematics, Technology, Art, Economics, Languages, PE and English were particularly strong.

Results improved at Leon school and Sports College, with nearly half of the passes being at grades A-C. The most outstanding results were in Art and Drama.

Lord Grey School, a specialist language college, is particularly proud of the French results as all the students passed with 88% gaining an A or B grade. The overall pass rate for the school rose to 98%.

Eight students from Ousedale School gained straight A grades in four or more subjects and four of them are scheduled to go to Cambridge University. The school has achieved some excellent results with a 99% pass rate with three-quarters of these being higher grades. Results in Geography and Sociology were outstanding with a total of 23 A grades.

All of the advanced level Sports students from Radcliffe School passed, with five of the six students gaining merits or distinctions. There were several strong individual performances, with students passing all of their subjects with high grades. The pass rate was 100% in both English and Design Technology.

The results at St Paul's maintained the schools consistently high standards with well over half of the passes at grades A-C.

Fourteen students at Shenley Brook End passed all of their subjects at grades A or B, with four gaining straight As. These were the best results yet at the school with a huge increase in the overall average point score.

The overall pass rate improved to 95% at Sir Frank Markham School with over half of the passes being at grades A-C.

Eighteen students at Stantonbury Campus gained three or more A grades. Results were particularly strong in Performing Arts, Art, Economics, Communications and Sociology. Both the pass rate and the proportion of higher grade passes rose.

Walton High had its best results yet with a pass rate of 100% and several outstanding individual performances. One student has gained a place at Hertford College, Oxford University, to read Law. Nearly half of the students in Maths gained a grade A and in thirteen other subjects 80% of students gained grades A-C.

Adult learners have also done better than last year. Of the 26 students who took the full "A" level exams with the Council's Adult Continuing Education (ACE) service, 40% were at A grade, and 65% achieved grades A-C with an overall pass rate of 96%. One student, Colin Hughes, has gained one of the top five marks in the country in "A" level Classics and has secured a place at Cambridge University, having started his "A" level last year with ACE.

Liberal Democrat councillor Sandra Clark, cabinet member with responsibility for children and young people, said: "I would like to offer my congratulations on behalf of Milton Keynes Council to all students and to their teachers for their excellent teaching, support and guidance to their students. All have worked very hard to achieve these good outcomes. These results continue the improving trend at "A" level. It is good to see a rise in both the pass rate and the proportion of higher grades. Our local schools are giving our young people a very good foundation for future study, training or employment and students taking courses through Adult Continuing Education are also being very well served."