Students Celebrate after IB Diploma Results
By Adrian Frost (Assistant Principle)
15 July 2009
Left-Right: Kezia Lock, James Gray,
Joshua Bull and Tom Swaine
Students were celebrating this week at Colchester Sixth Form College, after the publication of this year's International Baccalaureate Diploma results.
As I.B. co-coordinator Jim Morrissey explained: "The International Baccalaureate Diploma is a challenging and well-respected route to University that a number of students opt for as an alternative to A-Levels. It asks a lot of them in terms of the breadth of skills that they are required to develop and also recognises their broader engagement with the community. The maximum possible total points score is forty five and it's really pleasing to see so many students achieve more than forty points, gaining more than 90% of the total points available.
"These scores represent a major academic achievement that will be recognised across the world, including by the top universities. Several students this year will now be taking up places at Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and the like".
"Over 90% of our students
have achieved the diploma,
compared with an
international average of
83%."
Amongst those celebrating were Melody Munro and James Gray, both of whom scored an impressive 43 points. James has accepted a place to further his interest in languages at Queens College Cambridge and Melody will be reading Law at Brasenose College Oxford. Also pleased was Joshua Bull, whose 40 points will enable him to take up a place reading Mathematics and Philosophy at Durham.
Every year a significant number of International Baccalaureate students move on into medicine, and this year proved no exception, with, for example, Tom Swaine taking up a place at Queen Mary's Medical School in London after achieving an impressive 42 points. Others, such as Kezia Lock, plan to move further afield, before starting university courses having achieved 43 points. She is now making a return visit to Kerala in Southern India to do further community work with the Russ Foundation, a charitable organisation that Kezia and many of her fellow students have visited, and been fundraising for, throughout the course.
College Principal Ian MacNaughton congratulated the students on their success. As he pointed out "it's very pleasing to see these students succeed on this very demanding programme. Their results are excellent in compared to students all over the world and we're very pleased with how they have done. Over 90% of our students have achieved the diploma, compared with an international average of 83%. Their average points score of 31 is very impressive. To put this achievement in context, the university admissions service (UCAS) regards 31 points as worth more than three A grades at A-Level. Students and staff have worked extremely hard to achieve such excellent grades."