Abu Dhabi school sees 70 per cent improvement on A-Level results

ABU DHABI // Al Yasmina school has improved on its A-Level results from last year, with close to 70 per cent of students achieving A* to C grades.

About 40 per cent of students received between A* and B grades in all their subjects, with 97 per cent receiving a pass.

In the last academic year, more than 50 per cent of the students achieved A* to B scores with more than 30 per cent of the students scoring results of A to A*.

“The improvement from last year is commendable,” principal Tim Hughes said.

“A-Level courses are demanding, and parents know very well how much [work] is required from students throughout their two years of study to achieve such good results.”

Mr Hughes said the results meant that most of the pupils would be accepted to their first-choice universities.

Pupils achieved the highest marks in biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics, but also performed well in Arabic and Islamic education.

“We want to see an improvement on the results of previous years, and we work to ensure that our results meet and exceed the best schools internationally,” said Peter Carpenter, director of education at Aldar Academies, which includes Al Yasmina.

Pupil Luke Reid received a C in biology and As in psychology and physical education. The results won him a place in a sports and exercise science programme in Loughborough University in the UK.

However, because of the time difference, he had to wait about 90 minutes to know for certain if he had been accepted or not.

“There was a lot of knee shaking and sweating while I was waiting online for the result.”

When the results eventually came through he was relieved to find out he had been accepted.

“I was ecstatic and ran down and told my mother who started crying,” Luke said.