This summer’s examination results have rounded off an ‘outstanding’ year at St John Rigby College. First and foremost, they are an indication of the hard work of an extraordinary group of students whose education was impacted significantly in their final three years of high school. They met these challenges and also those of adjusting to College and have fulfilled the comments made by Ofsted inspectors in January 2024 who stated: “Students make exceptional progress on their programmes. A high proportion of students achieve high grades.”
The class of 2024 have achieved pass rates which are close to 100% and over half of the grades awarded were ‘high grades’ – A*/A/B/Dist*/Dist. These figures exceed significantly the College’s pre-pandemic grade profile, to which examination boards have now returned. The development and progress of these young people, in addition to their academic achievements, merits recognition as it did when inspectors commented: “Students benefit greatly from the extensive range of enrichment activities that develop their character. They expand their horizons and develop confidence, self-esteem and independence through participation in these activities.”
This is now the fifth consecutive year when students’ high grade performance has exceeded 50%, a remarkable achievement! Our College’s philosophy is that there is ‘no ceiling to achievement’ and that all students are supported to achieve their full potential.
Behind each set of grades is an exceptional, individual story. For many the next chapter may be university and they will now progress to chosen and prestigious degree courses, for a large number the next step will be a higher level apprenticeship.
Principal, Peter McGhee CBE, commented:
“This has been a whole year of external assessments for St John Rigby College and whilst we are proud of our outstanding judgements from our recent inspections, the most pleasing thing about this year and the reason why we do what we do, is to see and to share the successes of our students. They have proven themselves to be a remarkable group of young people and their results are testament to their resilience and their hard work. We are delighted that the large majority of our students have once again secured places at their chosen destination. However, within any examination system there are individual disappointments, for which we are here to provide help and guidance. I am extremely grateful to our staff who have led and supported students’ learning and development and I was proud to read in one of this year’s inspection reports that, “There is a real spirit of collaboration and teamwork which many staff describe as being a family atmosphere.” It continues to be the case that the environment created at SJR produces something very special and enables our young people to go on to do great things in the future. We wish them well and we look forward to working with our new students when they enrol next week.”
15 August 2024
