St Paul’s High School, Bessbrook is celebrating an excellent morning as pupils in Year 12 and Year 11 receive their GCSE, Level 2 and other vocational qualifications.

The day falls in the school’s Diamond Jubilee year, sixty years since St Paul’s first opened its doors in 1966.

Almost eight in ten pupils, 79.92%, have achieved five or more grades at A* to C including English and Mathematics, three percentage points higher than last year. More than nine in ten, 91.57%, have achieved five or more grades at A* to C, and almost three quarters of the year group, 73.09%, have achieved seven or more at A* to C including English and Mathematics.

The school is particularly pleased with its performance against the most demanding of the published benchmarks, seven or more grades at A* to B including English and Mathematics. Almost one in four St Paul’s pupils, 24.50%, reached that standard, and 27.31% achieved seven or more grades at A* to B. St Paul’s is a fully non-selective school, admitting pupils of every ability from across South Armagh and beyond, and these are figures the school would set beside any in Northern Ireland.

Across every entry, 86.7% of the school’s 1,937 GCSE grades were awarded at A* to C, up from 85.8% last year. More than half of all grades, 51.3%, were awarded at A* to B and 29.4% at A* to A. In the two subjects that open the most doors, 86.35% of the year group secured A* to C in English and 84.74% in Mathematics.

Among the many personal triumphs, forty-one pupils have been awarded at least six grades at A* or A, a remarkable achievement across a whole year group and one the school will mark with them this morning. The school is proud of every one of them, and two in particular deserve mention. Tatiana Grabowska, a past pupil of St Malachy’s Primary School, Carnagat, is the school’s top female achiever with ten A* grades. Stephen Phelan, a past pupil of Dromintee Primary School, is the top male achiever with seven A* grades and two A grades. Both came to St Paul’s five years ago as outstanding prospects, and both have achieved everything the school expected of them. Their primary schools laid the foundations for that success and share fully in it.

There is a child behind every set of results. As a fully non-selective school, St Paul’s knows that for many pupils a grade C is the equal of another pupil’s A, and the school is as proud of them this morning as it is of its forty-one top achievers.

Three subjects recorded a full 100% of grades at A* to C: Art and Design, Further Mathematics and Music. ’Fast Track’ Mathematics in Year 11 reached 97.7%, History 97.5%, Spanish 96.2%, Geography 95.8%, Science (Double Award) 95.7% and Irish 92.2%.

The school’s vocational and specialist provision was equally strong, with eleven Level 1 and Level 2 awards recording a full 100% pass rate, among them the school’s OCN NI Level 2 suite of qualifications in Business, Information Technology, Science, Religious Studies and Healthy Living, Performing Arts, Preparation for Work, and the BTEC Tech Award in Child Development.

Head of Year 12, Mr Martin Rafferty, has shepherded this year group across five years, from the day they entered St Paul’s in September 2021, supported throughout by a strong team of form teachers, subject teachers and the wider staff.

Mr Rafferty said:

“These young people have worked exceptionally hard, and they have done it with real character. They have been supported every step of the way by a strong team of form teachers, classroom assistants and pastoral care staff, and a great many of them made our Evening Study provision part of their week, year after year. That dedication is exactly what you are reading in these results. I have known this year group since they walked in as eleven year olds and I could not be prouder of them.”

Principal, Mr Dáithí Murray, said that the results reflected five years of steady, determined work by the pupils and by the staff who taught them.

“This is a wonderful morning for our pupils, for their families and for the entire St Paul’s community. These results belong to the young people who earned them, and they are the product of five years of sustained effort. They also reflect the tireless dedication of our teaching and support staff and the unwavering encouragement of parents and carers. I am immensely proud of every one of them.”

Mr Murray also pointed to the breadth of the school’s success:

“What pleases me most is how widely our young people have succeeded. Strong results at the very top, strong results right across the ability range, and strong results in our vocational and specialist provision, where a full 100% was achieved in eleven awards. St Paul’s is a non-selective school and we make no apology for expecting a great deal of every pupil who walks through our doors. This morning shows what happens when we do.”

Vice Principal for Standards and Improvement, Ms Christine Fearon, said:

“I could not be prouder of this year group. They came to us in 2021, in the shadow of the pandemic years, and what they have achieved is a credit to their determination and to their character. Behind these figures are careful internal tracking, high expectations of every pupil whatever their starting point in Year 8, a genuine partnership with parents, and departments who never gave up on anybody. We knew this year group had enormous potential, and we left no stone unturned in making sure that what was inside each child’s envelope was something they could be proud of. Congratulations to every one of our pupils.”

The school also warmly recognises the achievements of pupils with additional learning needs and those who experience barriers to their learning. Educated within a supportive and inclusive community, they have secured the qualifications they need to move on with confidence, whether continuing into Sixth Form at St Paul’s, moving to Southern Regional College, taking up an apprenticeship or beginning work.

Reflecting on the values of the school, Mr Murray concluded:

“At St Paul’s we speak often of truth, kindness, integrity and compassion. Today’s results are those values in action: pupils who worked with honesty and courage, teachers who gave generously of themselves, and families who supported their children with love. In our sixtieth year, mornings like this one show exactly why St Paul’s has flourished for six decades, a proud mirror of the community it serves.”