Newham College students shine at GCSEs

Kay Atwal, Chief Reporter Friday, September 7, 2012
4:00 PM

Students at Newham College saw passes in just under 95 per cent of their exams, up by 10 per cent on the previous year.

In addition, 52 per cent of them had results with the top grades needed for A Level study.

In one Maths subject, 99 per cent of students passed and over 70 per cent gained grades A* to C.

There were also passes in 90 per cent of students’ exams in one particular science subject plus a 55 per cent rate for top grades.

College managers were celebrating after the results indicated that plans were on track to boost GCSE and A Level provision for students in east London.

Gosia Mcpherson, Deputy director of the Stratford Campus, said: “Congratulations to our students and lecturers who have worked so hard. We want to boost participation in education and have an open access policy, so we’re pleased that we have students who are doing so well.

“We’ve seen improvement in results compared to last year and so we’ve defied the national trend that has seen falls.”

One College improvement initiative involved increasing its outreach work to schools and young people in general.

Maariyah Kilu, 16, from Manor Park, decided to enrol at the College after attending a special, one-off science lecture in July at the College’s Stratford Campus.

She was impressed with the tutors and liked the sense of independence offered by further education colleges.

She said: “Newham College’s lecturers tested us to see whether we understood what they taught us and told us about things we need to know about, like the science dictionary.”

She is planning to study at the college after gaining eight GCSE at Little Ilford School and is hoping to study dentistry.