St Mary’s is Sefton’s top-performing GCSE school for the third year running

St Mary’s College in Crosby has been named as the top-performing GCSE school in Sefton for the third year running according to new Government figures highlighting the importance of a broad-based curriculum.

The college achieved a score of 56.8 in the Department of Education’s (DfE) recently published Attainment 8 performance table, higher than all other independent and state schools in the borough.

Attainment 8, launched in 2016, measure students’ average grades across a range of eight GCSE-level qualifications.

These are English and maths, three English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) qualifications (including sciences, languages, history, geography and ICT) and three additional qualifications approved by the Department of Education.

The aim of the key Government measure is to encourage schools to offer their pupils a broad and well-balanced curriculum.

St Mary’s College principal, Mike Kennedy, said: “Our school’s policy has traditionally been to offer students as much scope as possible at GCSE level, in terms of both the number and variety of the subjects that they take.

“We are yet again delighted to have achieved the top Attainment 8 score in Sefton for the past three consecutive years.

“This official top ranking reflects the breadth and quality of our curriculum and, of course, the hard work, commitment and excellent academic performances of our pupils.

“I would like to congratulate all our students and staff on this outstanding achievement”.

In last summer’s exams almost two thirds of St Mary’s students (62 per cent) recorded ten or more GCSE passes, with many achieving 12 GCSEs, reflecting the school’s broad and balanced curriculum.

Atsayan Sachchin from Waterloo was top of the class achieving A*-A/9-7 passes in all 12 of his GCSE subjects.

Among the girls Laura Kearns from Maghull was the top performer with 13 GCSE passes, including five at the top 9 grade and four at 8.