Blaenau Gwent Council would like to congratulate all our GCSE pupils on their achievements today. We are pleased to announce that students in all our secondary schools have achieved well again across a wide range of GCSE qualifications, in line with the national assessment agenda for Education that was initiated across Wales last year in response to COVID-19.
Cllr Joanne Collins, Executive Member for Education in Blaenau Gwent, says:
鈥淎 massive congratulations to all our GCSE pupils for your outstanding achievements today. Well done also and thanks to everyone involved with today鈥檚 results, including our wonderful teaching staff; school governors and parents and carers. This has been an unprecedented and difficult year for all learners and our schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Blaenau Gwent鈥檚 education sector has worked exceptionally well together in the true spirt of collaboration and continued to support pupils and their families and this should be acknowledged.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic there were Centre Determined Grades (CDGs) awarded by an approach developed through the WJEC in conjunction with Qualifications Wales and educational establishments. We wholeheartedly believe this was the right decision for our hardworking pupils and teachers. Schools are working to make sure our young people are well prepared for the next stage of their learning journey and we wish them all the very best for the future.鈥�
Lynn Phillips, Corporate Director of Education in Blaenau Gwent, says:
鈥淐ongratulations to all our learners in Blaenau Gwent and across the region, particularly so during this period of national change for Education and of course the on-going response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new approaches adopted by our school leaders and teachers to support learners is in my view delivering progress and achievement. The close partnership work between our schools, the Education Achievement Service and the Council, including support services puts children and young people firmly at the heart of all our work. We remain committed to ensuring that schools and our learners continue to be well supported as they progress through the education system within the County Borough. I would like to take this opportunity to personally say a big well done to all our learners involved in these results and wish them all the very best on their future pathways.
The Blaenau Gwent Association of Secondary and Special School Head-teachers have this morning released a joint statement regarding GCSE and Vocational results.
They said: "We are all delighted with this year's GCSE and Vocational results. After an incredibly difficult and disruptive year for all our learners, we are so pleased that their hard work and dedication has been rewarded.
It's important to remember that GCSEs are studied for over a period of years and the results they received will have been based on a myriad of internal and external assessments. Also each result will have been signed off by at least two teachers and the Head-teacher. Therefore, despite this year's results being Centre Determined Grades (CDGs), they are as valid as any other year, indeed in many respects the process has been more rigorous than sitting a one off exam at the end of a long period of study.
As a group we are therefore very proud of each and every one of our KS4 learners across Blaenau Gwent They have been through such a stressful period of time, and fully deserve the excellent results received in each school. These results will now lead to more students than ever before moving on to post-16 education and training which can only be good news for Blaenau Gwent and for the future of our communities"