Year 11 students at The Marsh Academy again achieved impressive GCSE results, with including some outstanding individual performances.Principal Shaun Simmons explains the new method for measuring schools’ performance at GCSE:“The Marsh Academy are one of just a few schools nationally to have opted into the new Progress 8 measure aMarsh_Acadamy_Logo year earlier than is compulsory. We think it is important  to focus on the achievement of every single student at the academy and in a range of subjects rather than just the few students who happen to be around the C/D border in English or Maths. A student managing to improve from a B to an A or from an E to a D can still represent a great effort and I think this should be celebrated. The Progress 8 figure measures how well our students achieved in 8 subjects including Maths, English, Double Science and either History, Geography or a Language and compares this to other students in the country with similar ability when they joined secondary school. I am delighted to say that our early calculations suggest that our Progress 8 score is +0.14 which is an improvement on last year and means that across the board our students have outperformed similar students across the country by, on average, one and a half grades out of 8.

 Two of the students achieving particular success were Peter Banks and Sophie Ashdown, who have been supported through the academy and in conjunction with Tonbridge School and Cambridge University to help them access the top universities in the country. Peter gained 7 A and 2 B grades, plus a Distinction in ICT and Sophie also achieved 9 grades at A or B. A number of individual subjects also performed exceptionally well, particularly Geography and PE and I think our English results are unlikely to be bettered by any other similar school. Our year 10 students also achieved success with 88% of our students already achieving at least 3 GCSE grades, giving excellent preparation for next year.

I think it is important that, with so many negative headlines dominating the press, we celebrate the success of all young people across Shepway and recognise the efforts put in by students and also staff. At the Marsh Academy we regularly had staff and students working after school, during holidays, on Saturdays and even the occasional Sunday in order to give our students the best possible chance of success. I would like to thank these people for their dedication and the difference it makes to the lives of young people in Shepway and, of course, The Marsh Academy students.”