A Level Success in 2016

Colston’s students, staff and families are delighted by this year's A Level examination results. 36% of A Levels were awarded at A* or A grades, 33% of candidates gained 2 or more A*/A grades and one in four Colstonians achieved the equivalent of straight A grades or better.

Headmaster, Jeremy McCullough, said: “these grades are the reward for a great deal of hard work from pupils and staff”. He suggested that Colston’s ethos does a great deal to support the students' academic outcomes: "Colston's students are a diverse and talented bunch and the School's holistic approach to education allows each individual to feel valued for being the best possible version of themselves. This includes a broad and stretching extracurricular programme that strengthens academic performance. Well done everyone."

It has been another very successful year for university entrance with almost all Upper Sixth Form leavers gaining places at their first choice universities. Notable individual successes include:

Elliot Bloom, Josh Callaway and Alex Logan all achieved better than straight A grades to secure their places to study English at Exeter, History at Warwick and Natural Sciences at Bath respectively. Similar success was enjoyed by Saba Hussain (Medical Sciences, Exeter), Lydia Pike (Biomedical Science, Birmingham), Hannah Sabine (Psychology, Exeter), Ben Solly (Mathematics, Warwick) and Luke Wilmott (Psychology, UCL).

There were also noteworthy achievements amongst those students taking BTEC qualifications. Toby Shiu’s double Distinction gains him a place at Nottingham Trent, Joe Grant’s Distinction, starred Distinction a place at Cardiff Metropolitan and Tom Fisher’s double starred Distinction and A in A Level Geography a place on his first choice course at Bath University.

Old Colstonians will be particularly thrilled to read of the success of the two OC sponsored Jim Tolman Scholars. Since joining Colston's from Oasis Brightstowe (formerly Portway Community School) Naz Armaghani, Senior Prefect, and Nawamin Panyapiean have both excelled themselves during their Sixth Form years, contributing in many ways to the life of the school and have been rewarded with excellent examination results. Naz has achieved an A* and two Bs and will go to UWE to study Psychology, while Nawamin's A*, A*, A grades have done more than enough to secure his place at Newcastle to study Biochemistry.

AS results were very positive with nearly one in every three results in the top A Grade bracket (there are no A* grades at AS level). 56% of students gained at least one A and 23% earned two or more top grades. Particular congratulations to Courtney Chappell, Billy Diamond, Francesca James, Prag Khanal, Natasha Okoye and Weronika Razmus who all swept the board with A grades.