Manchester: Saint Paul's celebrate students' success

Students at Saint Paul's Catholic High School in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester were given an advanced taste of what their GCSEs would be like when the school set them a series of mock exams.

All students in Year 11 sat the internal examinations which, as well as providing excellent preparation for public examinations, also give students and teachers valuable information about current levels of performance, students' strengths and those areas that they still need to develop in order to fulfil their potential in the summer.

Mr Dan Lynch, Examinations Officer at Saint Paul's, explained: "Mock exams are a great opportunity to get a feel for what taking the real exams will be like; our students experience everything from what it feels to be in the exam hall, doing revision, down to what the exam paper looks like and how they will approach it, so everything should be a bit more familiar in the summer. Mock exams also allow our students to find out where they have gaps in their knowledge and gives them time to learn these aspects before the real exam. It's a helpful benchmark to measure progress between now and the exam, and can help students evaluate how far they have to go to achieve their target grades and whether current revision techniques are working."

Mr Mike Whiteside, Deputy Headteacher at Saint Paul's, said: "The students collected their results in a sealed envelope, the same way that they will receive their results in August. It was an exciting day for them. They are now undertaking follow up work to identify their strengths and areas to develop ready for the exams in the summer."

"The exams were designed to give our students as real an experience as possible of their GCSE examinations," explained Headteacher, Mr Alex Hren. "We are determined to do all we can to improve the life chances for our students and we believe that many opportunities can come from having good qualifications. The students were exemplary during the formal examination weeks. We encouraged our students to approach their mock exams with the same level of determination they would for their final GCSE examinations. Adopting this attitude was extremely useful in helping them to achieve their best and truly benefit from the experience."

LINK

Saint Paul's Catholic High School: www.st-paulshigh.net