Once again Year 11 students have faced a heavily disrupted and unusual year at Tretherras. Throughout all the lockdowns and remote learning, our students have remained upbeat and positive, despite not experiencing the year in the way we would have wished for them. To their great credit, they engaged fully in school life and completed the year with smiles on their faces!

Students will be awarded Teacher Assessed grades (TAGs) today. It is important that students and parents understand the process behind a Teacher Assessed Grade. The Teacher Assessed Grades awarded have gone through a rigorous process that was detailed to all schools and colleges by Ofqual, the examination boards regulator. Teachers at Tretherras took this responsibility extremely seriously and used a combination of assessments about all students, including class and formal assessment grades, Pre-Public ‘Mock’ Exams and coursework grades, to give an accurate TAG. Department teams and school leaders then worked together to ensure there was a fair awarding process, moderation and parity across subject classes. Our TAGs were submitted to the exam boards for external moderation in June and we were delighted that, following our submission of requested evidence, our TAGs were accepted as completely accurate by the exam boards without exception.

As always, there are some students who have achieved particularly spectacular results. Cally Barker gained 9 grade 9’s and one Distinction Star, Matilda Rigoli achieved 10 grade 9’s, Grace Kaye gained 9 grade 9’s, Lowen Mears-Ollerenshaw 6 grade 9’s and 2 Distinction Stars, Jodie Cox and India Greenfield both achieved 7 grade 9’s.

Henija Thapa, Stella Pope, Evie Damms, Jenson Owen, Harvey France, and Eliot Barham-Baines will all be delighted with their results this morning and were among our students who made the most progress – well done!

Head of Year 11, Sue Ollerenshaw, commented, “Well done and Congratulations ‘Class of 2021’! You really showed your true colours with these incredible exam results and we are so proud of you.

Despite what has been thrown at you since March 2020, you have made the most of all the opportunities and, in the face of adversity, have achieved your potential making some exceptional progress and happy memories, that will last a life time, along the way.

Well done: we are all so proud of your hard work and dedication. More than any other cohort of students you have been asked to take ownership of your learning and develop a maturity above your years. These GCSE results represent an investment of a huge amount of time, commitment and focused study over the past 5 years.

There is so much to celebrate this morning for all of you and so many of you have excelled. We hope you are all reflecting on your time at NT with pride and with smiles as you look ahead to your bright futures.

I hope you will always strive for the best – if you can navigate yourself through GCSE study in lockdown you can do anything! Thank you for being such an incredible year group. It has been a pleasure to know you all and guide you through the last 4 years.

Deputy Headteacher Richard Higginson said, “We are extremely proud of the achievements of all our students. In a year of so much change the students have shown resilience and drive and these results they have achieved reflect their hard work. We wish them every success in their next step in education and the world of work.”

Executive Headteacher Samantha Fairbairn commented, “As with the Sixth Form results, Tretherras staff worked with integrity to follow the advice and guidance from Ofqual in awarding accurate Teacher Assessed Grades throughout an extremely challenging process.

On behalf of the staff of Tretherras, I would like to congratulate Year 11 on their fantastic individual achievements. So many of our students have achieved an array of wonderful results and they have developed a wide range of life skills during their time in school which will open doors to their futures. We are proud of every single one of them and wish them every success. We would like to thank Year 11 for their optimism and resilience and for being great role models for younger students within our Tretherras family. We look forward to many of them returning to our Sixth Form next month.

I would like to thank our parents and carers for their fantastic support over the last five years. Educating young people is a great family and school partnership and our Year 11 are an absolute credit to everyone in the Newquay community.”