Prior Park headteacher says success rooted in nurturing individual progress

Hugs, tears of joy, squeals of delight and pats on the back filled the playground at Prior Park as the young students received their GCSE results on Thursday morning.

The celebratory atmosphere was warranted as the school achieved a 99.7% pass rate, with 91.4% of students achieving grades 9-4 and 52% achieving grades 7-9, including A* and A grades.

In addition, value-added analysis showed of 0.7 indicated significant individual progress of the students.

Headteacher Paul Martyn told the Chronicle: “We couldn’t have hoped for better.”

He noted that 52% of all grades were A and A* equivalents, describing this as an “an incredible achievement.”

However, he also pointed out that it was not just about the headline figures, but also about the school’s commitment to individual student progress.

“I think if we go beyond the headlines and we talk about the real story, the individual children, we need to start drilling into something called value-added and that's where you take a baseline of what a student's ability is, compare it nationally, and give them a forecast in those terms, we're then able to see if we've actually added value to our children or not,” he said.

“Zero is well done you've done exactly what you're meant to do for your children.”

“We got a value added of 0.7. If I convert that into layman speak, that means that seven out of every 10 grades on average, were one grade higher than they should have been.”

“So yes, our headlines were brilliant, but the real story is we add value to our children, whether they are at the top end of the academic scale or whether they're lower down that scale, and they're working at the hardest.”

“What we can say is the value added in our school really shows that each individual story is being impacted upon. And I think that's the big takeaway for today. That's what we're most proud of.”

When asked about the secret to this success, he was quick to state that Prior Park is not an “exams hot house.”

“I used to work in state schools in the UK, and my experience of working in those large schools is that if I can nurture children, if I can treat children as individuals, if I can make sure that their pastoral care is right to begin with, they often take care of the next steps,” he said.

“I just need to put them in a state of at least neutral, but ideally in a positive mindset, and then they go and fly and they go succeed for themselves, because all students want to do well.”

“All I'm allowing, all my colleagues are allowing, is that ability for it to happen that, I believe, is the success working now in a small school compared to my experience in the UK.”

While several subjects stood out for their exceptional performance, with drama and PE achieving only the highest grades, and strong results across English and the sciences overall, he said “we’ve had an incredible year, and I truly believe it’s down to the cohort of children, the mentality there, the personality that they’ve had this year to work as a collective,” he said.

Some of the students getting their results included Gema Corrales, was very happy as she did “a lot better than I thought I did.”

“I feel excited that I got such good results because I wasn't expecting it, to be honest.”

“In history, I got an eight, which I'd been working really hard towards. Okay, so I'm very happy about that.”

Her results mean she can pick the subjects she wants for her A-levels, namely, English Lit, Music and Drama.

Urban Kuach told the Chronicle she “got the results that I was hoping for, like, after a lot of work, it's paid off, thankfully.”

“I did really well in sciences, which I didn't think I was going to do as well in, and I got an A* in English language, which I was really worried about as well.”

Next for her is her A-levels in Psychology, Spanish and Religion, and the future after that is open for now.

Thomas Ewing said that, overall, his results are “just way better than I expected.”

“I was sort of worrying that I was going to get, sort of, fours and fives, but I didn't get any of those.”

“I got sixes and above, and I was quite pleasantly surprised with the nine that I got in Physics as well.”

The results will allow him to continue his studies he said as he aims to start his A-levels in Maths, Music, Physics and Geography.

“I'm planning on dropping one though, so I can have that leverage to be able to pick the ones I want and this just means that I have a strong sort of knowledge going into the subjects that I want, especially Physics.”

His goal in life is to become a musician.

“I want to write songs, produce music. And the subjects that I got, maths and physics, again, will help me with that, in terms of the producer side and the technology. And a six in Music is a bit underwhelming, but I'll take a six.”

Gabriella Risso said: “I'm really happy with my results. They were better than I expected.”

She was very pleased with her results in Maths as it’s her favourite subject due to the fact she “loves the problem-solving and how this extends to everything. I just really enjoy the process.”

She will now enjoy the rest of the summer before starting studying for four A-levels in Maths, Further Maths, Computer Science and Physics.

“We are only allowed to do further maths as a fourth A level, and I want to do it at uni, so I need to take further maths,” she said.

Patrick Schawel said that his results have left him feeling in a “little bit of both worlds.”

“There were some subjects that I didn't really think I would do as well in, and I ended up doing quite well, and the subjects that I mainly cared about were a little bit of a flop.”

“They didn't do as well as I hoped they would have, and I have a few reasons as to why that might be, but I'm not going to go into detail.”

He will now stay at Prior Park to continue his studies, he will study for a Btech in Business and he will speak to his parents and teachers about other choices he can make. In the meantime, he will celebrate his success with his family. As “that's the most important thing to me.”

With just over a week of summer remaining, Mr Martyn encouraged students to enjoy their break before returning to “work hard again.”