We welcome the announcement in relation to GCSE and A Level grading by the Education Minister, Mr Peter Weir, on Monday 17th August, 2020. All of the schools in the Banbridge Area Learning Community are pleased that our students will now be rewarded with the grades that they deserve in their GCSE, AS and A Levels. As schools we had implemented robust systems to ensure that the Centre Assessed Grades were fair and represented the true potential of our pupils. Our students thoroughly deserve grades that reflect their teachers’ predictions and we are delighted that the same decision has been made in the UK, applying to both CCEA and non-CCEA Examinations, ensuring portability and comparability of qualifications.

This year has been an unprecedented and extremely difficult year for our young people, their parents and their teachers. As school leaders we have worked together throughout lockdown, using a range of online tools, in order to meet the needs of the pupils and communities we serve.

Today, we celebrate the success of our GCSE students as they gain the qualifications they deserve. The Class of 2020 has had the most challenging year in living memory and we commend them for their resilience and their maturity in following the Government Guidelines. We wish our GCSE students every success as they progress to the next stage of their educational journey.

The excellent GCSE results achieved are due to the sustained commitment of our students, the support of their parents and the professionalism and dedication of our colleagues. Public Examinations were cancelled for the first time in history and we are delighted that all the hard work of our pupils and teachers has ensured that our young people have been rewarded.

Congratulations to all of our students from The Banbridge Academy Area Learning Community.

R S McLoughlin (Banbridge Academy), Mr A Bell (Banbridge High School), Mr I McConaghy (Dromore High School), Mrs A Anderson (Newbridge Integrated School), Mrs McCullough (Rathriland High School) and Mrs R Woods (St Patrick’s College).