Former students of Sunderland High School are celebrating today after excelling in their GCSE examinations, despite the upheaval of the school closing last year.

 Dame Allan’s Schools in Newcastle welcomed students from Sunderland High in September 2016, putting on a bespoke timetable and lessons for the students so they would be able to complete their GCSE studies with as little disruption as possible. Now those students are celebrating excellent results, with two in particular doing exceptionally well.

Rebecca Marsh and Louise Peart both received all A* and A grades, and achieved the coveted new 9 grade in English Literature.

Rebecca opened her results enveloped to find that she had been awarded seven A* and three 9s, an exceptional achievement and certainly bucking the national trend of a dip in GCSE passes.

Louise achieved four A*, 3 A, a 9 and 8 and a 7 – all of which equate to and A grade or above – and is delighted with her results. Louise said: ‘It has been a difficult year for those of us who were at Sunderland High School, but the teachers and other students at Dame Allan’s have been so welcoming and worked really hard to help us settle in and do the best that we can in our exams that I actually feel lucky in a way.’

Both girls are staying on in to the Sixth Form at Dame Allan’s, in fact Rebecca’s sister Emily, also from Sunderland High School, received her A Level results from the Dame Allan’s sixth form last week. She achieved excellent results that mean she is able to study history at Edinburgh University from September.

 
Dr John Hind, Principal at Dame Allan’s Schools said: ‘We appreciate that this has been a difficult year for the former Sunderland High School students. We have all been really impressed by their resilience and willingness to work hard; they are a credit to their former school. We are delighted to be celebrating their excellent results and look forward to welcoming many of them back in to our Sixth Form.’