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Posted on: 26/08/2022‘Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.’ Helen Keller
Last year, still significantly affected by the ongoing disruption to education caused by the pandemic, we entitled our ‘Results’ Article’ of 13 August, ‘Adaptability, Creativity, Courage…And a smattering of Hope’.
This year, following receipt of externally validated data for both our Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 cohorts, we can truly say that our hopes and those of our resilient, extraordinary learners have been realised.
We are proud of each and every one of our students and celebrate below with a snapshot of individual ‘success’ stories.
Tremendous efforts at all four of our secondary schools with Post-16 cohorts have resulted in our students being able to pursue exciting and well-deserved futures at a range of destinations. At Onslow St Audrey’s School, Chancellor’s School and St Clement Danes School, students gained places at Oxford and Cambridge. Our students will be reading Medicine at Gonville and Caius, Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Selwyn College, History at Balliol, Computer Science at King’s and Natural Sciences at Emmanuel. Four further students will read Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine and Science at UCL, Sheffield, Queen Mary and Surrey.
Exceptional attainment was seen at Chancellor’s School and Onslow St Audrey’s where eight students gained 19 A*s, 6 As and a Dist* between them. They will read from the full range of subjects including Chemistry, Computer Science, English, Economics, Engineering, History, Law and Mathematics at some of the country’s most prestigious universities including Durham, Exeter, Liverpool, London, Nottingham, Sheffield, York and Warwick. At St Clement Danes School, 54% of A Level entries were graded A* or A with the Best 3 A Levels Average Point Score equivalent to an A- Grade at 45.4.
Meanwhile at Elstree Screen Arts Academy (ESA), a UK Centre of Screen Excellence for the CraftSkills Traineeship, 100% of post-18 trainees have found employment, training or freelance work within the creative sector. As a specialist centre for media and production arts, there have been some amazing outcomes in Photography, Game Design, Film Studies, Dance, Production Arts Technology, Production Make Up, Music Performance and Musical Theatre.
Notable student successes at ESA include four students gaining 8 Dist*s, 2 A*s and 2 A grades in a range of vocational and academic courses. Three of them will go on to study Musical Theatre (Triple Threat), Popular Music and Make Up at University of Chichester, Goldsmith’s and Arts University, Bournemouth while Maya N has enrolled in the Year 14 CraftSkills Traineeship at ESA for Production Assistants. It is wonderful to see ESA becoming a pipeline of talent into the creative industries and our Trust students becoming the future creatives of film and TV. Destinations 2022 include: Sky, Warner Bros, Netflix, Panavision, White light and RADA.
We also celebrate those students for whom progress has been exceptional. Particular congratulations go to Sofia S from Onslow St Audrey’s who will be taking up a Sports Coaching Apprenticeship with Premier Education and Redon S, Jonathan P and Sylvie M-L from Chancellor’s who will read Mathematics and Computer Science at Birmingham, Aeronautics and Astronautics at Southampton and International Relations at Leeds respectively.
Our Key Stage 4 students are no less to be congratulated. When we remember that the last time they experienced a non-pandemic year was when they were in Year 8, to know that their commitment, combined with the phenomenal support they have received, has resulted in such success for them is nothing less than an absolute joy.
This is particularly the case for our students, Senior Leaders and colleagues at Croxley Danes School. Having attended three different school sites and endured a pandemic since starting at the school which opened in 2017, Croxley Danes’s inaugural cohort of students received the school’s very first set of results yesterday and they were excellent. Over 20% of the student cohort averaged a Grade 7 or above across all their GCSEs and early calculations indicate that a significant majority have made progress beyond expectations based on their primary school data.
Across our schools, and for their achievement and truly exceptional progress, the following students should be recognised. At Chancellor’s School, Antigone M, Serena G, Erin M and James S, and at ESA, Jay L. Between them, these five students achieved 5 x 9s, 15 x 8s, 23 x 7s, 9 x 6s and 2 x 5s. At ESA 82% of the student cohort met or exceeded their target grades - a truly remarkable achievement in light of all circumstances - with 90% achieving on or above their targets in the specialisms of Creative Media, Dance, Film Studies, Photography, and Make Up. At Onslow St Audrey’s the following students all achieved at least one grade above target in each of their subjects: Jack C, Ella H, Leo W, Laura d-C, Talita C, Alexander J and Tyler M. Mia T, Emily W and Amir M-B are to be congratulated at Croxley Danes, each of whom out-performed their target grades by far.
Many students across our Trust schools also gained a strong clutch of 9s, the very highest possible grade and a recognition of truly outstanding attainment and performance. Our ‘top performers by attainment’ (placing them all in the top 0.25% of performers nationally) were: at Croxley Danes School, Yousuf S and, at Chancellor’s, Bethan E and Lauren H, each of whom attained ten Grade 9s, as did Freddy N at St Clement Danes School, who also attained an extra Grade 8 for good measure. Liam E, Sophie M and Anya M at St Clement Danes each attained nine Grade 9s and a Grade 8 and Olivia Matharu nine Grade 9s. A further seven students across our schools attained a minimum of eight Grade 9s while ten students at Onslow St Audrey’s secured average points scores of up to 8.5. Twins Harriet and Jack W at Croxley Danes attained eleven Grade 9s in total across their nineteen subjects.
Finally, special commendations from their Headteacher for resilience and achievement in the face of particular challenges go to Iris B and Katie W, both from St Clement Danes School.
We are so proud of all our students who have stayed wholly committed, not only to their studies but to their place as kind, hopeful, confident citizens in futures to come. We are also deeply grateful to our Senior Leaders, colleagues and the wider families who support our students for their sustained and unrelenting belief that the mountain they and their students have climbed could be conquered. Surely all that is left to say is…Well done Class of ‘22. You are truly exceptional.
Posted on: 20/10/2021Launch of DET Learner Voice Council
On Wednesday 13th October Danes Educational Trust held our first DET Learner Voice Council Induction Day at Onslow St Audrey’s, Hatfield
The event bought together over 60 students from our secondary schools including Onslow St Audrey’s, Croxley Danes School, St Clement Danes School, Chancellor’s School and Elstree Screen Arts for the launch of the DET Learner Voice Council.
The LVC will provide learners the opportunity to take part discussion and decision making at all levels. They will work with students and staff alike, conducting cutting edge research exploring what teaching and learning has the biggest impact in helping them learn. The induction day featured workshops on teambuilding, teaching and learning, growth mindset and constructive conversations. We were lucky enough to have exceptional practitioners Charley Clarke, Nicola Spencer, Joelle Casotti, Callum Finn and Dr. Martijn Van der Spoel joining us on the day along with our brilliant team of LVC facilitators.
If you would like further details about the work we are doing in schools, please do get in touch with Nikki Railton, DET Leader of Purpose.
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