LIVE: A Level results day 2021 as Sheffield students find out their grades

A major drive to boost the NHS workforce is underway this week as students receive their exam results.

The head of the NHS today called on students considering their options to take up one of the thousands of places available at university for more than 900 NHS-related courses.

It comes as latest figures suggested there are currently around 76,000 NHS vacancies in England, with staff shortages impacting not only waiting lists and patient care but the wellbeing of current staff working to make up for the shortfall.

Speaking at a hospital in Milton Keynes earlier today, Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, encouraged students to “make the best and most rewarding decision” and sign up for a career in the health service.

Thousands of healthcare placements for nursing and other clinical and medical roles are set to be boosted by a £15 million package to bring in 5,000 more healthcare support workers for those considering leaving full time education.

Requiring no formal health background, healthcare support workers assist nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals to carry out health checks, update patient records, help patients wash, dress and move around, and care for women and families in maternity services.

While many A-level students have already chosen nursing careers to start this September, others will be reconsidering options and the NHS is calling on students to consider a nursing or healthcare-related degree, with thousands of places available through clearing.

The call comes alongside record numbers of doctors and nurses working in the NHS with the number increasing by over 16,000 in the last year.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS England chief executive, said: “As students up and down the country collect their exam results over the next few days, I want to encourage everyone who has been inspired by the incredible work of NHS staff to consider a career in the health service.

“Whether you want to study at university, or go straight into work, there are various routes into the NHS and with more than 350 different roles to choose from - including healthcare support workers, podiatrists, porters or midwives - there really is something for everyone.

“It is brilliant to see that a record number of people have applied for healthcare degrees and combined with this additional investment in even more new roles, we are strengthening the NHS workforce and building a strong future for the health service and for our patients.

“After the last 18 months, I’ve never been prouder to be a part of the NHS, so if you want to join us and make a difference to patients, please search NHS Careers today.”

Year 13s at Sheffield South East Sixth Form – which is based at Sheffield Park Academy – are celebrating after receiving their A Level grades today, with the vast majority securing university offers and apprenticeships of their choice at some of the country’s leading universities and companies.

This year, A Levels were awarded following Teacher Assessed Grades (TAGs) due to the cancellation of external examinations.

At Sheffield Park Academy, students sat exams under exam conditions and provided a range of pieces of controlled assessment that was moderated both internally and externally to determine these grades.

One successful teenager today was Zaakir Hussain, who opened his envelope to find he had earned three A*s in Maths, Chemistry and Biology and bagged his place to study Medicine at the University of Sheffield.

He said: “I’m over the moon, htere’s no other way to put it.

“It’s been an on and off year. First the exams were cancelled and it was all over the place. It made it very hard but through all of it my teachers just told us how to handle the stress, and took alot of the stress on themselves and handled alot. I want to say thank you to all of them.”

Many of the students will now be preparing to take up places at university in the autumn, with a number celebrating offers from top Russell Group universities. 100% of students who applied for a university degree course have successfully secured places.

Roland Freeman, Principal at Sheffield Park Academy, said: “We are extremely proud of our Sixth Formers for what they have achieved. They have had to show real leadership and determination, overcoming significant challenges during the pandemic in order to achieve their ambitions .

“I would also like to pay tribute to our students who have achieved places on competitive apprenticeship and training courses- again, I expect many of them to be leaders in their chosen fields.

“Finally, I would like to pay special mention to Miss Burton, Mr Nasim, Ms Headford, Dr Chatha and Mrs Hopkin and the sixth form tutor and teacher team. Our average grade of A- is the culmination of a two year journey of improvement and is testament to the ambition, knowledge and determination of Miss Burton and her team and means that the A-level results that our students now achieve are among the very best not only in Sheffield but the North of England. “

Students at Sheffield’s Birkdale School have beaten the unprecedented circumstances of the past two years and have come out with more than 76 per cent of all grades at A or A* level.

They include 17 students who achieved three A* grades or more and five students who earned 4 A* grades or more.

Five pupils are bound for Oxford or Cambridge and 11 students will be studying medicine or dentistry next year.

Peter Harris, Birkdale School Head Master, said: “These outstanding results are a reflection of the hard work, determination and resilience of our students in these exceptional times. There has never been an academic year like this – students have experienced disruption to their studies beyond our control; but have risen to the challenge and reaped the rewards for their hard work today.

“Our staff have worked tirelessly to support students in completing their courses and preparing for assessments. During the periods of lockdown we moved seamlessly to our excellent remote learning provision. Despite today’s outstanding grades, success at Birkdale is never solely measured by academic results - we pride ourselves that our students are well prepared for future study at university and life beyond Birkdale.”

“Congratulations to every single Birkdale student receiving their results today. Thank you to staff, parents and everyone who has supported them throughout their time at Birkdale, and I wish them all well for the future.”

Students, families and staff are celebrating at Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School after what it has called a very strong year for A level and AS Level results.

With over 43% of A Level entries gaining an A* or A, 71% of entries gaining A*-B grades, over 94% gaining A* - C grades and 100% pass rate, many students will be taking up places at their first choice of employment, apprenticeship and universities.

Headteacher, Martyn Cooper, said “I’m delighted for students and their families. It is a joy to see young people realising their dreams, making phone calls to family members and planning the next steps of their journey, especially after such a challenging and unprecedented time period. Students, their families and staff at the school have continued to work extremely hard in ever-evolving scenarios to achieve these much deserved outcomes. We are particularly pleased that our initial analysis shows that we should be in the top 5% of schools in the country in terms of progress data; this shows that DHFS students work hard and make excellent progress regardless of their starting point, a trend that we are proud to see year in, year out at DHFS. This is also testament to the subject knowledge, skill and personalised input from our staff. On behalf of the DHFS community I would like to thank them for their commitment to our students and school.”

Marc Howell, Director of Sixth Form said “Our students have worked incredibly hard this year and following a rigorous process, fully deserve these brilliant outcomes, we have seen students successfully taking up places at competitive institutions and destinations including 3 places at Oxbridge and 4 are going to study medicine or dentistry. With over 93% of students gaining a place at their first-choice university, rising to 100% including first or insurance choice university placements and an increasing number of students obtaining competitive apprenticeship placements, we are pleased to see students taking positive next steps after such a challenging two years. Well done to our Class of 2021, we are incredibly proud of them all.”

Wales High School is pleased to report some outstanding achievements by its students in their A levels and vocational qualifications this summer, after what has been another challenging and turbulent year for students, families and staff.

This year, following the cancellation of exams, grades were awarded through a process of teacher assessed grades, against a national standard and approved and awarded by the exam boards. The government is not publishing performance data for any schools or colleges this year due to the varying impact of the pandemic.

Now, Wales High School is saying many congratulations to Head Prefect Alex Clarke, who has achieved 4 A Levels at A or A* in Biology, Mathematics, Further Mathematics and Chemistry, to secure his place at Cambridge to study Natural Sciences.

Another student, Mel Coxon, has not only achieved A or A* results in Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics, but this year she has been competing in the hurdles at the English Athletics Championships. As well as her A-level success, she has been selected to represent the England U20 team at the 400m hurdles and 4 x 400m hurdles.

Tom Shah has secured his place on the PWC Flying Start programme at Reading University, having achieved a combination of A and A* results in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Accounting and Economics.

And Joshua Newbold, who was recognised for his selfless work in the community by receiving The High Sheriff Award for his involvement in NCS this year, has secured his place at Leeds University to study Economics, having achieved exceptional results in Economics, Mathematics, Physics and EPQ, with a combination of A and A* grades.

Pepe Di’Iasio, Headteacher, said, “We are immensely proud of all the work and achievements of our students, especially after such a difficult and disrupted year. Our teachers have worked tirelessly to ensure students are all able to progress onto further education and study, and it is with immense pride that we look forward to seeing what they will achieve in the future.”

Students at Silverdale Sixth Form are celebrating today after a fantastic set of A-level results, gained during two challenging years.

Its success stories today include David Simpson and Zahab Adil, who have secured prestigious degree apprenticeship positions. David’s is with Arup in Sheffield and Zahab’s is with Oxford Economics.

Meanwhile, six students have earned places at Cambridge or Oxford, while another has earned a scholarship to Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA.

Head of Silverdale School, Sarah Sims, said: “Students deserve huge credit for the determination shown, in what has been an exceptional 18 months. Their hard work and fortitude has resulted in some exceptional individual success stories.

“This year the government decided to cancel all public examinations and instead teachers assessed students instead. We would like to thank all teachers and support staff for the enormous amount of work they have put into implementing this alternative system at great speed following the government’s announcement in March.”

The proportion of A-level entries awarded an A grade or higher has risen to an all-time high after exams were cancelled for the second year in a row due to Covid-19.

Hundreds of thousands of students have been given grades determined by teachers, rather than exams, with pupils only assessed on what they have been taught during the pandemic.

Girls performed better than boys at the top grades, and female maths students overtook boys for the first time in the number of A* grades achieved, figures for England, Wales and Northern Ireland show.

In total, more than two in five (44.8%) of UK entries were awarded an A or A* grade this summer – up by 6.3 percentage points on last year when 38.5% achieved the top grades.

Overall, the proportion of entries awarded the top A* grade this year has surged to 19.1% – the highest proportion since the top grade was first introduced in 2010.

The figures, published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), cover A-level entries from students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Scottish Highers results are also being released on Tuesday.

This year, teachers in England submitted their decisions on pupils’ grades after drawing on a range of evidence, including mock exams, coursework and in-class assessments using questions by exam boards.

According to an analysis by Ofqual, some 6.9% of students in England were awarded three A*s this year – compared with 4.3% in 2020 and 1.6% in 2019.

Last summer, the fiasco around grading led to thousands of A-level students having their results downgraded from school estimates by a controversial algorithm before Ofqual announced a U-turn.

This year, no algorithm was used to moderate grades.

Instead, schools and colleges in England were asked to provide samples of student work to exam boards, as well as evidence used to determine the grades for the students selected, as part of quality assurance (QA) checks.

Random and targeted sample checks of evidence were also carried out after grades were submitted.

Ofqual said that student work from 1,101 centres in England – around one in five schools and colleges – was scrutinised by exam boards.

For 85% of the schools and colleges whose students’ work was scrutinised as part of QA checks, the regulator said the subject experts were satisfied that the evidence supported the teacher-assessed grades that were submitted.

It said the remainder were subject to further scrutiny, including conversations between subject experts and staff from the school or college.

Following this, “in most cases” the exam boards were satisfied with the original grades or with the revised grades which they submitted.

But Ofqual said that, at the time of writing its report, exam boards were in continuing discussions with “a small number of centres” and grades would be withheld for these schools should concerns remain unresolved on results day.

Dr Philip Wright, director-general of JCQ, said: “On behalf of JCQ and the exam boards, I would like to congratulate all students receiving their results today.

“The impact of Covid has undoubtedly provided a difficult chapter in their education journey and their resilience is to be applauded. We wish them all the best as they take their next steps in life.

“We would also like to express our sincere thanks to teachers, exams officers, heads of centre and colleagues, who have all worked exceptionally hard to determine grades this summer.

“Teachers used their professional judgment and submitted the grades and evidence in good time for us to check and award grades today. Their efforts will allow students to swiftly progress on to the next stages of their education, training or employment.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “It is important to understand that the system used to assess students this year is different from both formal exams and the approach that was used last year too, when an attempt to use an algorithm to standardise grades nationally went wrong and had to be abandoned.

“It is therefore invidious to make direct comparisons with other years and vital that we celebrate the achievements of this year’s cohort who have had to endure so much over the past 18 months.”

He added: “The majority of university applicants will now go on to their preferred university, and those who have missed grades and go through the clearing process will receive support from universities, schools and colleges to find a course which fulfils their aspirations.

“It will be important that universities provide educational and pastoral support to their new undergraduates given the extreme disruption they have faced during the course of the pandemic, and we are sure this is fully understood already.”

More than half of all pupils at Sheffield High School for Girls earned all As or A*s in their envelopes today in what the school is calling a “stellar result”.

63% of Sheffield Girls’ students achieved all grade A or A*s, with 17 students achieving all A*s.

Head Nina Gunson said: “Our Year 13 cohort are an impressive bunch. They are incredibly bright, already achieving our highest GCSE results to date in 2019, and they are ambitious, with places secured at highly competitive universities, apprenticeships and training programmes and, today, their success continues.

“We are all so proud of them and it was wonderful to see them receive the stellar set of results they deserved!”

Successes include Lucy Xu achieving an incredible five A*s, who will now go on to study Physics at Imperial College London. Head Girl team Mia Venables, Poppy Warburton, Ruby Blackburn and Jessica Johnstone Pratt will study medicine, law and engineering at Oxford, Bristol and Liverpool.

In a growing trend, more students have selected other routes to continue their studies including apprenticeships and in-house training. A* student Darcy Egginton will pursue a career as a commercial airline pilot from September.

Two students at the School, which is part of the GDST, also beat off phenomenal competition to win GDST scholarships to support them during their time at university. Sara Rehman, won the Federica Lord University Scholarship and will study Law at Oxford, whilst Chelsea Bacon starts her Business Management course at University of Newcastle in September, having been awarded the GDST Lorna Cocking Scholarship.

Head Nina Gunson added, “For our Year 13 students, and many like them throughout the country, this has not been the Sixth Form experience they expected, but it is testament to their tenacity, commitment and perseverance that they have achieved so much, in spite of the challenges they have been presented with.

“I have every confidence that they will be better equipped for their futures as a result of their journey and now they have these stunning A Level results in recognition of their hard work.

“These students demonstrate our school values of positivity, kindness and courage in abundance. They have provided each other with so much support and encouragement throughout their time in the Sixth Form and have formed friendships which will last a lifetime. I wish them all the best for the future.”

The proportion of A Level students awarded an A or A* grade for has surged to a record high this year, after exams were cancelled for a second consecutive year due to Covid-19.

Thousands of students have instead been given grades determined by teachers, with pupils assessed only on what they have been taught during the pandemic.

Read more here: https://www.thestar.co.uk/education/a-level-results-hit-record-high-as-almost-50-of-pupils-land-a-and-a-grades-3340143