TWO sets of twins with 21 A* and A grades between them are among the outstanding GCSE performances by students at Bede Academy, in Blyth.
Kieran and Niamh Thirlwall and Courteney and Deanna Dawson will enjoy a double celebration along with other students who have achieved a string of top grades.
Brown belt kickboxing twins Courteney and Deanna, who achieved 4A*s, 9As and 6 B grades between them, are both returning to Bede Academy sixth form.
“We revised a lot of our subjects together but there wasn’t really any competition between us and we're we are both really pleased with our results," said Deanna.
“Although we are identical we are quite different in our choices of A levels. I’m hoping to pursue a career in languages so will be studying English, German and biology, while Courteney would like a career in medicine and has chosen maths, chemistry and biology," she added.
Another kick boxer Imogen Pollard leads the field with six A*s and four A grades, closely followed by guitarist Noel Walker with four A*s and five A grades, Sally Dobson with four A*s and six A grades and Sea Scout and pianist Alexander Dodds who has six A*s, two As and two Bs.
Imogen, who has a blue belt in kick boxing, said: “I’m so happy with my results. The exams were very hard but I got great support from my tutors and I’m looking forward to coming back here in September to study biology, chemistry and French at A level.”
Rugby star Tom Marshall, who captains the Northumberland county team for his age group and is in the Newcastle Falcons U18 development programme despite being only 16, proved he has brains and brawn with three A*s, six As and one B grade.
Tom said: "It was quite hard fitting in revision around my training schedule but my results are better than I expected – I thought I might get a few more Bs and possibly a C so I’m really happy.
“Although it would be a dream to become a professional player I’ve also got one eye on getting in to one of the Russell Group universities to maybe study engineering in the future.”
Young engineers Alexander Forsythe, Josh Aisbitt, Tim Henderson and Ryan Robertson, who have been instrumental in promoting their favourite subject at Bede Academy, achieved a total of 24 A* and A grades with all achieving at least A grades in mathematics and electronic products.
The boys have run the STEM and VEX Robotics clubs for the past four years, achieving second place in the regional VEX finals in 2015, and run regular engineering activities for Academy students in Years 2-6. Alexander was also in the news for his work with Newcastle University on the Pong-Sat Project, while Josh and Tom are both Air Cadets.
The academy’s overall pass rate for students gaining at least five A*-C grades including English and maths was 66%.
Principal Gwyneth Evans said: “We are delighted for our GCSE students who have worked extremely hard to achieve this excellent set of results, with impressive performances across many subjects and it is particularly encouraging to see three boys in the top five students this year.
"The twins have shown impressive tenacity over five years at Bede Academy and their perseverance and hard word has certainly paid off. Tom is an immensely talented, yet humble, young man who is a fantastic role model and his success is richly deserved.”
Miss Evans added: “As an academy, our ability to add value - or the difference we are able to make over a student’s time with us - is extremely important. For example, this is the first year that all students have sat both the English Literature and English Language courses. Our value added for English in 2015 put Bede Academy in the top 14% of schools and we have a very similar result for this year yet with a much more difficult course, so these results are outstanding.
“It is also the first year that all students have sat either separate sciences or dual award science. We are therefore delighted, in particular, with our results for physics with 26% of students getting an A* and 63% achieving an A.”
The academy’s high reputation for music has strengthened still further with every student gaining a B or better. In art, 94% of students achieved a C or better, in graphic products it was 92% with a C or better and in IT 90% got a C or better.
Other high performing students were:
Courtney Dawson – three A*s, five As and two Bs
Thomas Henderson two A*s, six As and one B
Ryan Robertson – three A*s, four As and two Bs
Neave Thirlwell – one A*, six As and two Bs
Karl Bradley – one A*, six As and three Bs
Daniel Collins – two A*s, four As and four Bs
Adam Hopper – two A*s, four As and two Bs
Shawnee Ibbotson – two A*s, six As and four Bs