The headteacher at a school in Southport has said that “this year we should be celebrating our students more than ever”.
Ian Parry and his colleagues have carried on teaching pupils at Meols Cop High School throughout the coronavirus lockdown. They also continued teaching students at home virtually, while even volunteering to create vital PPE equipment for local care homes.
Mr Parry says that the Class of 2020 have faced learning during unprecedented circumstances and should be incredibly proud of their efforts.
He said: “This time of year usually brings an array of pictures celebrating GCSE results. Groups of students with beaming smiles clutching that envelope while leaping in the air.
“The story accompanying the pictures reads of record results and the individual grades achieved by specific students as they take their next step on to colleges and apprenticeships.
“This year is a little different. For one, we aren’t able to take those group pictures and the masks the students are wearing hide those beaming smiles.
“However I would argue that this year we should be celebrating our students more than ever.
“Today, our students are receiving a very unique set of results. The results are not the outcomes of exams but grades based on a number of different elements. Elements and algorithms that have had a great deal of press and continue to be questioned and challenged.
“But at the heart of these grades is something very unique. The schools who have worked with the students, watched them develop and professionally assess their progress were able to accurately reflect the grade they were most likely to achieve.
“This is no less a celebration. A celebration of them as young adults who have achieved amazing things.
“We should reflect on the personal journeys they have been on through their education, the resilience they have shown, the skills they have developed, their integrity, empathy and honesty, the friendships they have made and the professional relationships that have grown with staff who have watched them develop into young adults we are immensely proud of.
“So, despite the political storm that surrounds this day, we must remember that it is a day to be proud of our young people. It is a day to gather behind them, wrap around them, support them and advocate for them. It is a day to remember the strength in our community and be proud of the future of our town.
“Class of 2020, we can’t wait to see what you do next.”
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