Hereford Cathedral School saw an excellent set of A-Level results again in 2023, surpassing all national averages.
All of the four HCS students with Oxbridge offers were successful in taking their places. Amongst them were Ioan O, Wills W and Tom S.
Ioan (below left) won a place with a choral scholarship at Magdalen College, Oxford University to read History having achieved A* grades in History and English Language & Literature, and A grades Latin and Maths. Ioan also boasted an A* in his Extended Project Qualification for which he wrote and published a book on the Hereford Cathedral Misericords. He was quick to share how much he's enjoyed his time at the school: "It’s been absolutely wonderful to spend my time at HCS and they’ve been motivating and have helped me to succeed the entire way through my journey.”
Wills (below right) was heading to Cambridge University to read Veterinary Medicine with two A*s in Maths and Chemistry and A grades in Biology, his Extended Project Qualification and AS Level Latin. Wills was grateful to his teachers for their support: “I’m overjoyed - ecstatic - about my place. The teaching support for Sciences is great; we have very good teachers who are very capable and know their subjects really well. They're more than willing to give you an ear to help with any problems that you have." Fellow Biomedical Society members, Sophie M and Alice M, took up places at Liverpool and Nottingham to read Veterinary Sciences and Medicine respectively.
Tom S (not pictured) joined Wills at Cambridge, reading Economics, having achieved four A* grades in Chemistry, Economics, Maths and Further Maths in 2022.
Amongst Hereford Cathedral School's highest achieving students was Ben D who achieved A*s in Classical Civilisation and Geography and an A in History and went on to study Politics & International Relations at University of Bath. Alex C also had a fantastic set of results with A grades in Biology, Geography and Latin and an AS Level in Greek, and Kiera T achieved A grades in Biology, Chemistry and Maths, plus an A in Further Maths AS. She was excited to be taking up her place at Sheffield to study Material Science & Engineering and said she would sum up her experience of HCS in three words: “exciting, inspiring and memorable.”
Alongside their duties as Heads of School, Will MJ, Minnie A, Edward M (below L-R) and Olivia T (not pictured) all won places at their impressive first-choice universities – Will went on to read Engineering at the University of Durham, Olivia went to Birmingham to study French, Ed's 3 A*s and an A in AS Economics (plus a GCSE in Russian!) won him a place at St Andrews to study Chemistry and Minnie headed to Bristol to read English Literature. She said: “I’ve absolutely loved studying at HCS. The support has been second to none; one-to-one whenever you need it and the teachers have been really supportive and understanding of any circumstance, and just really tried to make you thrive.”
Other outstanding subject achievements include BTEC Sport where close to 100% of students achieved distinction and starred distinctions. These are the equivalent of A*/A grades at A-Level and facilitate students’ paths to their universities of choice. Particularly strong results were seen in modern foreign languages this year too, with nearly two thirds of grades A*/A.
There was also an impressive set of results in the arts where over 71% of students achieved top A* and A grades in music, drama and art. Two leading ladies from the School’s hugely successful production of Chicago earlier in the year, achieved A* grades in Drama. Ellie P (below left), who starred as Roxy on The Courtyard stage in February planned to study Civil Engineering at Sheffield, while Summer R who played Velma (below right) took her drama to the next level at the University of Warwick.
Headmaster Dr Michael Gray said “These are a really encouraging set of public examination results and testament to the tremendous effort that our young people have put into their studies. The national picture is focusing a great deal on how this year’s results have now returned to the pre-Covid era. Compared with our 2019 results, this summer’s outcomes show a tremendous improvement, with the A* rate increasing by seven percentage points and the A*/A rate also increasing relative to 2019.
“This is a fantastic achievement and shows the ongoing academic trajectory on which the School is on.”
