Outstanding exam results are the final crown to a terrific year for Oxford High School GDST where it was awarded Independent Girls’ School of the Year last September, held its first ever TEDX talk in March, and has now celebrated outstanding results at A Level.
- An impressive 31% of pupil results were A* grades.
- Two thirds of pupils (63%) celebrated achieving A*- A results.
- 87% of Oxford High School GDST A Levels were graded A*- B.
- 15 pupils celebrated receiving at least 3 A*s with four pupils achieving an outstanding 4 A*s.
- A total of 31 pupils received at least 3 A*s and As which is 37% of our Year 13 pupils.
- 1 in 6 (17%) students have successfully secured places at Oxford or Cambridge with subjects ranging from Medicine, Natural Sciences, English, Classics, History and Modern Languages.
- Nine of our Oxbridge students will be going on to study humanities bucking the trend against Humanities. They will go on to study English, History, Human, Social and Political Sciences and Classics.
- Our Oxford High School GDST medicine careers programme continues to support our aspiring medics successfully with 10% of the cohort (8 students) successfully securing places to study Medicine.
The diverse, progressive and ambitious decisions of Oxford High School GDST’s A Level students are reflected in the variety of choices they’ve made about what to move on to next, ranging from International Management and Aerospace Engineering, to Cyber Security and Costume Design.
A sustained area of strength for the school is students going on to study Medicine supported by a bespoke and tailored school programme. This has resulted in 80% of medicine applicants receiving offers to study medicine including 2 offers at Cambridge.
STEM subjects continue to be a strength with 52% of pupils receiving offers to study a STEM subject in Higher Education. Subjects include: Medicine, Biology, Mathematics, Computer Science, Cyber Security, Biomedical Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Natural Science, Zoology, Aerospace Engineering. This is significantly above the 31% core STEM students who are women in Higher Education (source: HESA, 2023).
Student achievements in the Arts and Humanities are also highlighted by the strong A Level results in English, History and Religious Studies with over a third of pupils going on to study an Arts or Humanities subject at degree level – including nine students who will do this at Oxbridge. More broadly, one in six (17%) of Oxford High School GDST students have accepted offers at Oxbridge colleges.
Interestingly, and reflective of Oxford High School GDST’s global outlook, one in six pupils will be studying languages, studying internationally or taking advantage of a year to study abroad as part of their degree. In addition to offering eight languages as part of the core curriculum, this outward-looking focus connects with the school’s global outlook, encouraging students to explore, be curious to ‘go beyond’ what they know, to expand their social, commercial, global and environmental awareness in preparation for the future.
Pupils who joined Oxford High School for the Sixth Form in September 2022 have celebrated significant success and represent the diverse range of interests and opportunities available to students joining in Year 12. This includes Eva going to Cambridge to study Human, Social and Political Sciences, Michelle who is off to London School of Economics to study Psychological and Behavioural Sciences and Evelyn who will study Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry at University College London (UCL).
Together with their exam success, Oxford High School’s A Level students have each grasped the opportunities available at the school reflecting their own passions and interests for the benefit of others, for example:
- Serena, our Head Girl, worked with others to implement the Halo Code and provide access to free period products across the school. She received awards for Academic Excellence in Latin, Politics and History and will be studying History at the University of Cambridge.
- Tilly (studying Medicine and Surgery at Newcastle University) , Alice and Katharina (both Natural Sciences at Durham University), reached the global finals of the Conrad Challenge in 2023 in the Aerospace and Aviation category (the only team from Europe) and travelled to NASA to compete and present their solution to the global judging panel.
- Groups of Oxford High School GDST students organised virtual conferences, inviting fellow students from across the UK and beyond to attend – resulting in more than 5,000 attendees. In particular, Eva, who is going on to study Human, Social, and Political Sciences at Cambridge, and Grace, going on to study Politics at Bath University, worked with their cohort of Politics A level students to organise the Politics conference, which centred on the topic of the UK leaving the EU and featured distinguished speakers, including Alastair Campbell, Helen Thomas an OHS alumna, and Sophie in ‘t Veld, a Dutch politician and MEP.
- Esther, who achieved 4 A*s is already an accomplished poet, having won the Tower Poetry Competition in 2023, and will be studying English at University of Cambridge. Esther was also one of the top performers in the country for the OCR English exams.
- In March 2024, we hosted an official TEDx Youth event on the theme of New Realities: The Big Questions Shaping Our Future. Emma (going to Cambridge to study Natural Sciences), Esther (Cambridge to study English), Alice (Durham to study Natural Sciences), Katharina (Durham to study Natural Sciences), Maddie (Birmingham to study Biomedical Science), Tilly (Newcastle to study Medicine and Surgery) all wrote and delivered talks during the event.
- Art and Textiles continue to thrive with all pupils achieving A*-B grades and several pupils studying the creative arts in higher education. Imogen received A* securing a place at Loughborough to study Fine Art, Emma will study Costume for Theatre and Screen at University of the Arts London and Ellie will study Art Foundation at Oxford Brookes.
- Emily has rowed for the GB U19 team and has a sports scholarship at University of Washington in the US.
- Rebecca has had her photography exhibited at the Royal Academy and is going on to read History of Art and English at University of Edinburgh.
- Elizabeth was placed 4th in the world in the World Cheerleading Championships in 2023 and is also a three time British champion and two time European champion at this level. She is going on to read Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences at University of Portsmouth.
- Nathalie received the Alliance Française d’Oxford Trustees’ French A-Level Scholarship Award and is heading off to the Grand Ecole ESCP to study International Management.
Oxford High School GDST pastoral provision has also been shortlisted for Independent School of the Year for Student Wellbeing, 2024 – as a result of the extensive support that students have received from the school.
‘I am so proud of the extraordinary ambition that our students have demonstrated in this set of results. Their hard work, tenacity, and brilliance shines through demonstrated in the huge range of subjects and destinations that they have chosen. I am so grateful to the great teachers who have inspired so many to follow their dreams. So many of these have already contributed to improving our world before leaving, demonstrating just how ‘life ready’ they are. I can’t wait to hear about their next adventure. Watch out world!’ Mrs Gardiner Legge, Head