Strath school headteacher praises pupils for winning ‘gold, silver and bronze medals’
A strath high school headteacher just back from the Paris Olympic Games has praised her pupils for winning their very own gold, silver and bronze medals.
Claire McGonigal, who is in charge at Grantown Grammar School, has praised students for their hard work.
Highland Council revealed a mixed bag of results earlier th for the region’s pupils as a whole with attainment up in some areas and down in others.
However, at this stage precise details for individual schools both locally and across the region are not available.
But Mrs McGonigal was very pleased with the initial findings.
She told the Strathy: “I am just back from Paris where I have been enjoying the Olympics.
“I was delighted to see that the Grantown Grammar School pupils had picked up a lot of golds, silvers and bronzes, or As, Bs and Cs, in their SQA results.
“One of the trends this year is a large increase in A grades in the STEM subjects, in particular Computing Science which is a relatively new subject in the school.
“Given that we are in the middle of the Olympics in Paris, I should probably highlight that there was 100 per cent pass rate in PE together with great results in French.”
She revealed that the overall pass rate across National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher Grades A-C in all subjects is about 82 per cent.
She pointed out: “This is well above the National combined pass rate of about 76 per cent.
“I am hugely proud of all the pupils especially those recent GGS graduates who achieved the grades they needed to go onto to Further and Higher Education.
“If any pupils didn’t get the results they were hoping for, please don’t worry, we are here to help and can sort out options next term. “Remember, there is ‘no wrong path’ to the career you want and most people, including most of your teachers, don’t take a straightforward route through life. “Finally, I would like to say a big thank you to all staff for their hard work delivering the courses, to parents for their endless support and to the pupils who have done themselves proud.
“I hope that everyone enjoys the last couple of weeks of the summer holidays and I look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Tuesday 20 August.”
Ian Adamson is the headteacher at the strath’s only other secondary school - Kingussie High School.
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He said: “I am delighted with the SQA results achieved by our pupils this year. The hard work and effort from pupils, staff, parents and carers to support their children has really paid off.
“We had nine pupils who received straight A grades in their National, Higher or Advanced Higher exams and we are extremely proud of them.
“We are equally proud of every senior pupil who has achieved passes at a variety of SQCF levels.
“I am very proud of our senior pupils who joined us from Ukraine, with many of them achieving As and Bs and they now leave Kingussie High School to take up courses at a variety of Scottish universities.
“Staff are ready to support any pupil who requires guidance and advice if they have not achieved what they had hoped for in their exams.
“I look forward to welcoming all our pupils back to Kingussie High School on August 20.”
At a region wide level, there have been slight falls in pupils attaining A to C in Advanced Highers in the Highlands but more S4 pupils have gained National 5 English and Maths awards in the region.
The results published on Tuesday by the SQA are the first full set of exams since 2019 not to have any adjustments for Covid.
Council bosses have praised pupils for their hard work and pointed out that their education has been disrupted considerably by the pandemic.