Swansea’s A-level students are celebrating today after achieving some excellent grades during an extraordinary year.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic examinations were changed in the middle of the school year because of lockdown.
In January examinations were stopped and A-levels became centre determined grades which were judged on evidence of students’ work and determined by schools rather than external assessment.
Hundreds of young people from Swansea schools received their provisional grades in June and today received their final grades in order to go onto higher education or employment.
Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Education Improvement, Learning and Skills, Robert Smith, said: “I would like to congratulate all our pupils who have worked hard and achieved some excellent results.
“This has been an incredibly difficult period for our young people but hopefully now they are able to look forward and I wish them well in whatever they do next, whether it is going to university or further education, pursing vocational training or starting work.
“I’m very proud of our schools and teaching staff for their continued professionalism during these difficult times and again thank them for their hard work.”
More students were entered for science, technology, engineering and mathematics STEM subjects across schools in Wales and this will be important for the skills and talent required for the Swansea Bay City Deal projects in future.
Swansea Council’s Director of Education, Helen Morgan-Rees said: “During the last two academic years students have faced disruption, uncertainty and change.
“It has been extremely hard for schools and their students to adapt to a new way of working. Today marks the chance to celebrate the tremendous effort of everyone working together to achieve the right grades.
“Swansea’s seven schools with sixth forms made a mammoth effort to adapt to the new system for A-levels this year and ensured that there was a robust quality assurance process to award grades based on work undertaken by students. Many congratulations to students across Swansea for their achievements.”
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