A2 Results 2010

Highgate’s best-ever A level results: a quarter of all grades at A, the new gold standard at A level; 71 pupils gain at least one A

Highgate School’s class of 2010 is celebrating a record number of the critical A* to B grades which selecting universities use to choose their applicants: with 91% of the grades attained at this level, the outgoing Year 13 has scored the highest number of top grades ever. One in four grades – 132 in total – were A*, a new grade introduced to reward the achievements of the most able candidates, and 69.3% of all grades were at A* or A. Of our 160 pupils taking A2 exams this year, 71 (44.3%) gained at least one A*, the grade stipulated by Cambridge University while nearly half of our pupils (75, or 48.4%) gained no grade lower than an A. One pupil attained 5 A* grades covering Mathematics, sciences and modern languages, to add to the A grade he attained last year before the introduction of the A*; seven others attained four A* grades and a further ten gained three.

Of the larger subjects, over 90% of grades in English Literature (90.2%) and in Government and Politics (90%) were A* or A grades. In other larger and also so-called hard subjects, success rates were high: 77.2% of grades in Mathematics were grades A* or A; 75% in Further Mathematics, 69.1% in Economics and 67.4% in Chemistry. All pupils taking Greek and Russian gained A* or A, while similarly high grades were attained by pupils who took History of Art (88.9%) and by those who studied Latin (87.5%).

22 pupils secured places at Oxford or Cambridge, of whom 17 were from the class of 2010:

Oxford	Cambridge
Harriet Cheng (English)	Adrian Coll (Modern Languages)
Lucian George (History)	Golnoush Golshirazi (Natural Sciences)
Nicholas Hooton (Engineering)	Freddie Highmore (Asian and Middle Eastern Studies)
Hamish Hunter (History)	Max Jamilly (Natural Sciences)
Denis Kent (Biochemistry)	Katie Matthews (Music)
Hugh Lindsey (Physics)	Ryohei Nakamura (Economics)
Ben Parkin (Theology)
Douglas Perkins (Biochemistry)
Edward Steele (Mathematics)
Isaac Storm (Economics and Management)

Harriet, Lucian, Freddie, Denis, Hugh, Ryohei, Ed, Hamish, Max, Nick and Ben, were among the 18 pupils to score three A* or more.

This is the second year in which the co-educational Highgate has joined the ranks of the ‘premier league’ of schools securing 90% or more of grades at A or B, placing it among the top schools in England and the capital.

I am intensely proud of this year’s achievements which are the fruit of many months of hard work by the pupils, and years of inspired teaching by intelligent, scholarly and committed teachers who know and understand their pupils, seeing them in the round, and are never content with anything less than the best. Well done Highgate!

Full results for both A Level and GCSE is available here.

Adam Pettitt, Head Master

Back to news stories