Barry Comprehensive School

Pupils at Barry Comprehensive continued the extremely impressive trend of recent years which have seen the school receive recognition as the most improved school in Wales for the previous two years. More than 60% of pupils gained 5 or more A* to C grades and almost 30% of those achieved 10 or more C grades or better. Of particular note amongst those students achieving so highly were Simon Lawson, who achieved 15 GCSE/GNVQ passes, 10 of which were at A or A*, and Robert Morris, who achieved 14 GCSE/GNVQ passes, 9 of those being A or A*. ITV Wales were on hand for a live report from the school. Marc Prosser was brave enough to open his results envelope in front of the camera – and was very pleased with his 14 A to C passes (including 5 GCSE A grades!).

As a single sex school to age 16, there were some outstanding subject specific achievements in areas where boys are traditionally strong, however, there were also excellent results in Music, where 95% of pupils achieved a C grade or better, in English Literature where more than 68% of the 140 boys who sat the exam achieved a C or better and also the exciting new GNVQ Performing Arts course which saw a 75% pass rate.

Barry Comprehensive is also a pilot school for the new Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification which combines a focus on the key skills of Communication, Application of Number and ICT and a raised awareness of Welsh cultural and language issues with traditional GCSE and A Level studies. Students at the school have bucked the initial national trend, which has seen some relatively high drop out rates, as all bar one of the pupils who started the course this year have completed their studies and achieved the Intermediate Diploma. A new pilot scheme for extending the Welsh Baccalaureate to pre-16 students is planned for next year.