Kingston Grammar School Celebrates Record-Breaking A Level Results

Students at Kingston Grammar School are today celebrating record-breaking A Level results, the best in the School’s history, and will now be going on to study some of the most sought-after degree courses at internationally renowned universities in the UK and North America.

At a school where academic standards are always high, it is sometimes difficult to raise the bar above your predecessors but the leavers of 2018 have done just that. A* grades alone accounted for over 30% of grades this year with the A*/A grades in excess of two-thirds of all results. Over half of all students achieved at least one A* grade and the average grade for all A Levels was an A.

School Captain George Casci and Vice Captains Kirsty George and Daniel Piche Hainsworth were among 14 students who gained a full suite of A* grades across all of their subjects. They were joined by James Adshead, Hettie Cloud, Oni Fernando, Ellen Garard, Tomos Morgan-Young, Emily Perkins, Sam Shapley, Hakeem Shittu, Thomas Sweeney and Kate Jarvis.

Kate will be going on to study Medicine at Oxford University where she’ll be joined by Fiona Kennedy (History & English) and Charlie Perry (Chemistry) whilst Caitlin Arnold (Geography), Hannah Cowie (Classics), Vivek Haria (Music) and Will Touzet (Engineering) will be going up to Cambridge University.

Kate is also amongst an exceptionally large cohort of the Upper Sixth who are going on to read Medicine or Veterinary Medicine at university. “We’re hopefully producing enough medics to staff a small hospital department!” remarked KGS Director of Careers and Universities, Anthony Fitzgerald.

Another student who achieved A*A*A* was KGS 1stXI Cricket Captain and professional Surrey Stars cricketer Eva Gray who managed playing professional sport with study throughout the summer months.

Remarkably, Kirsty George and Hettie Cloud (Philosophy & Theology), and Caitlin Arnold and Jacob Docking (Economics), all achieved a D1 grade, which actually exceeds the A* at A Level.

Nearly all students achieved their first choice of course and university with many going to the top Russell Group universities in the UK ranging from Oxford and Cambridge to Imperial, UCL, Bristol, Edinburgh and the LSE, whilst Daniel Piche Hainsworth is taking his 3 A* grades to the University of British Colombia to read Human Geography.

Zoe Sim, who achieved AAA, has a place to study at RADA, Johan Smith, who achieved A*AA, is to attend the Royal College of Music, Zac Proctor, who also attained AAA, will be studying Art at St. Martin’s School of Art, London, and Millie Shafiee, who secured A*A*A, has gained a place at the prestigious and highly selective Royal Drawing School, London.

Head Master Stephen Lehec said: “The rich diversity of courses and locations that this wonderful group of students will go on to aptly reflects the passions and abilities that have been inspired and developed here at KGS. Whether they were with us for their entire secondary school journey or joined us in the Sixth Form, every student has benefited from not only the deep academic learning but also the immense range of co-curricular opportunities and the unrivalled pastoral care on offer. The importance of the latter cannot be overstated in an age where it is not just getting the grades, as these students have done so admirably, that counts; it is also important that they leave us as fully rounded and grounded individuals who will cope with the rigours of life beyond school.

These students have also made an immense contribution to KGS and to their communities through their charitable and voluntary work, as well as being magnificent ambassadors for the School. We could not be happier for them and for their parents; we wish them every success and look forward to hearing of their achievements when they rejoin us as alumni who will no doubt help to inspire the next cohort and generation of students at Kingston Grammar School.”