De La Salle - The Sleeping Giant Awakens!

One of St Helens most popular schools, De La Salle, has seen a massive improvement in its GCSE results this year. The school, which only 2 years ago was in Special Measures, was described by Andrew Rannard, the newly appointed Headteacher at the time, as a sleeping giant. With these results, it looks like the giant has finally awoken. Having seen the school come out of Special Measures and working towards Good, Andrew was delighted with how the students performed this year, saying “It is wonderful to see the impact of the many improvements that we have put in place over the past two years. The efforts of students, staff, governors and parents are now paying off and the school is well on its journey to becoming the outstanding school the community deserve.”

 

When asked how the school has made such rapid improvement in such a small space of time, Andrew is keen to emphasise that it is a collaborative effort. He says “As a school we have been keen to be outward-looking and engage with the Local Authority, the Archdiocese, Teach First and the best schools across the region. In simple terms, we now have motivated and well-behaved students being taught effectively by skilled teachers, but at De La Salle we believe there is so much more to educating a person. It is the wider experiences and opportunities - from trips, to arts, drama and music, through to sport, IT and technology - that gives students a strong base upon which to build and succeed.”

 

As well as some excellence individual achievements, the school saw a 41% increase in the total number of grade 9s and a 52% increase in the total number of grade 8s achieved compared to last year.  Maths was a particularly strong subject, with 4 times as many grade 9s as last year.

 

Despite these rapid improvements, the Head is still ambitious for further improvement.  “Our results for next year are set to improve further, and this is an exciting time for the school and its students. We are very ambitious that our students have an education to rival the best in the country and we will continue to work hard to make this a reality.”

 

We wish all our students the best of luck in the next stage of their journeys.

 

Eleanor Reece – five 9s, three 8s, two 7s

Robert Chaparro-Darwin – four 9s, four 8s, one 7

Aiden Dillon, Isabelle Gent and Alice Kenny

Ciran Pannina Gamage, Jack Cox, Michael Wortley, Kian Clarke and Nathan Connelly

Alice Kenny, Elizabeth Tracey, Isabelle Gent, Emily Woods and Tayla Freeman