Remarkably, 29 pupils (50 % of the candidates) obtained grades of AAB or better, with 51% of all entries graded at A*/A and 79% at A*-B. The overall pass rate was 100%.
In order to get a sense of what courses candidates have chosen to pursue, their university application details were treated to a ‘wordle’ process. A Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from any text that is provided. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text, so in this case the picture tells the story of which are the most common choices of course for these students.
2014 CCB Leavers’ University Courses
As the word picture shows, Engineering is the most popular choice for this year’s Christ College A level candidates, with three of these future engineers gaining places at the country’s top universities. Hugh Perkins hit the jackpot with 3 A* grades and is heading for Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, while Lewis Murray obtained 2 A* and 2 A grades and is bound for Keble College, Oxford. Kyle Wang also obtained 2A*s and 2As and will head for Worcester College, Oxford.
Medicine has also proved popular this year, with local pupils Dominic Hayes and Elgan Jones, both with 3 A grades, gaining places on this most competitive of courses at Cardiff and Newcastle respectively. Another pupil with ambitions to study Medicine is Jake Brockwell. His 3 As have given him a number of options which he is currently considering.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, in the light of this, Maths and Science were among the top performing subject areas in the school. In Maths 42% of candidates achieved A* grades, and Further Maths and Physics were among those subjects where 100% of pupils achieved A*- B grades.
However, these were not the only areas of strength; Economics, Music and French also produced 100% A*-B grades and Photography saw no fewer than 10 of 13 entries gaining A* grades.
Other local pupils performing particularly well were Andrew Roderick, who achieved A*A* and an A to read Economics at Nottingham, and David Silk, who achieved A*AA . Holly Taylor gained AAA to make it to Bath for Modern Languages, while Laetitia Tanqueray takes her straight A grades off to Exeter to read Law.
Further notable performances included local pupils Jamie Morris (AAB), Ben Wigmore (AAB), Sian Lewis (A*AB), Lizzie Metcalfe (AAB) and Cara McNaughton (A*AB).
Further afield, Will Thomas from Cowbridge achieved AAA, Rhys Brown from Crai achieved AAB, and Sarah Davies from Swansea A*AB, while Sophie Rudge from Aberystwyth gained AAB and Nan Thomas from Welshpool gained A*AB.
Twins Benjamin and Naomi Kriehn defied gender stereotypes; Naomi is heading to university to study Information Technology, while her brother Benjamin heads for a degree course in Musical Theatre.
Mrs Emma Taylor, Head of Christ College, said ‘Although the examinations themselves finished some weeks ago, the lives of these leavers have inevitably been on hold until they were sure of their futures. Almost all of them have achieved the grades to attend their first choice universities, and they can now set off on the next stage of their lives – congratulations to them all!’