THERE were tears of joy at Staindrop Academy last week as the wait for GCSE results came to an end.
Pupils and staff at the school were delighted with the results despite stepping into the unknown with tougher exams under a new grading system.
Headteacher Alyson Carr said: “The government changed the curriculum to be a bit more challenging.
“For all schools it has been a turbulent year. We are really pleased that we have had another year of improvement with these new exams.
“We have had some outstanding results in health and social care, PE and food technology.”
The shake-up of exams meant that this year’s GCSEs were graded using a one to nine system, with nine being the equivalent to the old A*.
William Rolt was the school’s top achiever with grade 7 or above in all subjects, including seven grade 9s. Outstanding results were achieved by Kirstin Parr with grade 8 or above in all subjects, including five grade 9s. Caitlin Shaw gained grade 7 or above across the board, including four grade 9s.
Callum Spence also achieved grade 7 or above in ten subjects including two grade 9s and six grade 8s.
Overall, 68 per cent of students achieved a grade 5 or higher in English and/or maths.
In English, 64 per cent of students achieved grades 9 to 5 and in maths 51 per cent of pupils achieved grades 9 to 5.
Ryan Jackson beat his targets by an average of two whole grades. Jack Stobart, William Potts, Sian Place and Daniel Bullen all beat their targets by an average of one grade.
Ms Carr added: “Today has been about celebrating the students’ and the staff’s hard work. Our students have completed very demanding programmes of study.
“There has been that fear of unknown for the staff as much as the students but I can’t stress how pleased we are. It has been great as teachers to see all the faces of glee today as they opened their results.”
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
