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Students collect their results from Lutterworth College last Thursday (s)
A LEVEL pass rates have been maintained by our schools just months after former education secretary Michael Gove pledged to make exams harder.
A third of the 171 pupils who sat A level exams at Rugby School got three or more A grades with 20 per cent of all grades being A*s, contributing to an overall pass rate in line with last year at 99.3 per cent.
Among its best performers were Tom Mourant, from Swinford, who got four A* grades and will now study Biochemistry at Edinburgh University, and Poppy Hudson, from Kites Hardwick, who got three A* grades.
Another good year at Rugby High saw 71 per cent of its grades being A* to Bs with 29 girls getting three A* grades, securing them places at some of the top universities.
Rebecca Rebis will read geography at for Emmanuel College Cambridge where former RHS girl Dame Fiona Reynolds is now the master, while Anna Mowbray is going to New College Oxford to read philosophy, politics and economics.
Lawrence Sheriff maintained its 100 per cent pass rate and also matched last year's 70 per cent of grades being the top three with four students securing places at Oxford or Cambridge.
Star performers at Lutterworth College were Scott Hicklin who got an A*, three As and a B; Joseph Lyne who got two A* grades and two As; Alex Maddison who got an A* and three As; and Jonathon Eastwood and Luke Conaboy who both got three As and a B.
Over 70 per cent of grades were C or above and 40 per cent were B or better.
And at Warwickshire College the pass rate at its Rugby Centre hits 100 per cent, but at all its sites just below at 98.4 per cent.
The strong performance comes after months of negative headlines surrounding allegations made against former principal Mariane Cavalli.
Results from Ashlawn, Bilton, Princethorpe College and Lutterworth High have not yet been made available.
Mr Gove, who was removed from his role during July's cabinet reshuffle, had said in April changes would make GCSEs and A levels more ambitious.
"They will prepare young people better for the demands of employment and further study, and will address the pernicious damage caused by grade inflation and dumbing down, which have undermined students' achievements."
GCSE results are out next Thursday.
Jess Roberts, 19, pictured here with her Warwickshire College Rugby Centre tutor Michelle Stuchbury got the A she needed in business studies to get into her preferred sociology courses at Leicester University (s)
Peter Harris, 19, from Rugby is going on to study English Literature and History at the University of East Anglia after achieving As in English literature and religious studies and a B in history at Warwickshire College's Rugby Centre (s)
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