Windermere School celebrates 'astonishing' IB grades (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Windermere School celebrates 'astonishing' IB grades

3:07pm Thursday 7th July 2011 in News

STUDENTS and staff at Windermere School are celebrating after achieving ‘astonishing’ International Baccalaureate grades.

Headmaster Ian Lavender said he was ‘absolutely delighted’ after the school improved its IB grades for the third successive year.

Top student was Pippa Smith who scored a maximum 45 points, putting her in the top one per cent of IB candidates in the world.

“I am thrilled to have achieved the results that I did and was not expecting it,” said Pippa. “I’m delighted to be off now to Newnham College, Cambridge, to study history.”

Mr Lavender said: “Unlike the old A-level system, the IB grade boundaries have varied by less than one per cent in 40 years, so I can confidently assert that this represents a marked increase in the school’s performance.

“All those students who applied to university earlier in the year obtained a number of conditional offers and . . . all our students, except two, have immediately secured their offers.”

Other top scoring students were Poppy Bullard and Richard Flint, both scoring 44 points, and Hanna Junti with 40 points.

“These are astonishing results,” said Mr Lavender. “The IB publish an average of the candidates who passed their diploma and for Windermere School this is now just over 34.

“When I met with representatives from the International Baccalaureate Organisation after taking over the school we analysed previous results and agreed that a school average of 34 was a realistic but impressive target, although many in the school at the time thought this was too ambitious. I am delighted that we have achieved this.”

Windermere School is a boarding and day school for boys and girls aged from two to 18. It was formerly known at Windermere St Anne’s but changed its name to Windermere School in 2010.