WE are celebrating our best ever set of results for the third year running, with 87% of Year 11 students achieving at least 5 grades at C or above and 63% achieving 5 grade Cs or above including English and Maths.
We are particularly pleased with our bumper crop of top grades, with vastly increased numbers of students achieving A* and A grades and some stunning individual performances. Top performers included Sarah Teale, who achieved A* grades in all 10 subjects and an AS level in Music. A number of other students, including Rachel Alty, Sam Crawshaw, Leanne Conneely, Victoria Kelly, Hannah McGuigan, Zoe Nicholls, Lauren Partington and John Tooley each gained at least 10 A and A* grades.
Staff and students have worked incredibly hard to achieve this excellent set of results and we are delighted to see that we continue to improve year on year. Students of all abilities have performed really well, and will be able to go on to the further education and training of their choice. We are also pleased that so many students this year achieved the very top grades – this is a real testament to the talent and commitment of students and of staff. We wish all our Year 11 leavers the very best for the future and hope that they continue to experience success.
We also have exciting news about our application to become one of the new “converter” academies, making us the first Wigan school to join the thousands of good and outstanding schools across the country that have grasped this opportunity. The Department for Education approved our application and we officially opened as an Academy on 1st September. The conversion will not mean any major changes; we will continue to carry the proud name of Fred Longworth High School and, of course, there are no changes to the staff, school day or term dates.
We have already benefitted as a school from the conversion – financially, we are better resourced for this year and we will make sure that these gains are used in a way that most benefits our students. We are also able to spend all our resources in the best way possible for our school and this will enable us to keep our strong focus on raising achievement for all.
The biggest advantage, however, is that we will be able to make sure that our admissions criteria so that we will be able to serve the communities of Tyldesley, Astley and Atherton in the way that we have over many years. Indeed, we will be working more closely with our traditional “feeder” primary schools over the next few months to make sure that we respond to the needs of our community. You can also be assured that we will remain as a fully comprehensive school, taking local children of all abilities.
We are very happy to be leading the way in Wigan with this move and look forward to working with our community to ensure that it benefits all our students both present and future.
