The Hampstead School community is celebrating today after our Year 11 students received a fantastic set of GCSE and BTEC results. This was another unprecedented year, with the return to comparable grading to pre-Covid examinations. Our students also achieved some unprecedented results.

Some provisional highlights include significant improvement in the number of students achieving strong passes (Level 5+) in both English and Maths. At 43%, this represents an 11 percentage point increase on our 2019 results. Those achieving 7+ in both has also improved, consolidating the 2019 performance at 10%.

Hampstead School’s Head, Matt Sadler, said: ‘The success of this group of young people is nothing short of awe-inspiring. In the face of lockdowns, absence and instability, they have approached their education with resilience, ambition and good humour. We are incredibly proud of the amazing results they have achieved, but even more proud of the compassionate, responsible citizens they have become. We cannot wait to welcome them back to Sixth Form in September.’

This August we have a whole year group of ‘good news stories’ – with all member of the cohort negotiating challenges and coping with the rigour of a return to pre-Covid grading . We do not have space to feature everybody here, but hope the following examples capture how special the Class of 2023 are.

Amr Nour achieved 10 GCSE at Grade 9 and one at Grade 8 (in Year 10) with a maximum average Attainment 8 grade of 9! To which he commented – “Well I am shocked, and the grades are okay!!!!”

Dean Duckling (pictured below) achieved 10 GCSEs including 9 Grade 9s and 1 Grade 8 with an average Attainment 8 grade of 9.

Helen Diamond achieved 10 GCSEs including 7 Grade 9s, 1 Grade 8 and 2 grade 7s with an average Attainment 8 grade of 8.6.

Sophia Popikova achieved 10 GCSEs at grade 7 or above including 4 Grade 9s, 3 at Grade 8s and 3 Grade 7s with an average Attainment 8 grade of 8.4.

Fatima Al Sabty achieved 10 GCSEs including 2 Grade 9s, 5 Grade 8s and 3 Grade 7s with an average Attainment 8 grade of 8.1.

Zainab Hussain (pictured below) achieved 9 GCSEs including 4 Grade 9s, 3 Grade 8s and 2 grade 7s with an average Attainment 8 grade of 8.2.

Florence Bradshaw Woolcock (pictured below) chieved 9 GCSEs including 1 Grade 9, 7 Grade 8s and 1 Grade 7s with an average Attainment 8 grade of 8.1.

Najma Moalin achieved 9 GCSEs including 5 Grade 9s, 2 Grade 8s and 2 Grade 7s with an average Attainment 8 grade of 8.5.

Anjuman Ahmed achieved 8 GCSEs including 2 Grade 9s, 3 Grade 8s and 3 Grade 7s with and average Attainment 8 grade of 8.

As always we also have our fair share of good news from students with particular stories to tell or particularly personal successes despite adversity or more complex and challenging circumstances.

Abdi Mohammed achieved 8 GCSEs with good passes in English, Science and Maths having arrived in Year 10 with hardly any written English as an unaccompanied refugee and Hampstead School being the first school he had ever attended.

Jowira Bakr achieved 8 GCSEs including 2 Grade 8s, 3 Grade 7s and 3 Grade 6s with an average Attainment 8 grade of 6.9 having joined us in Year 11 after fleeing her home country.