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IB Results
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Jul 21, 2008 - 7:12:40 AM

'First crop' achieve IB success at Warminster School

As the first school in Wiltshire to offer its students the opportunity to study the International Baccalaureate Diploma in the Sixth Form, we all had our fingers crossed for the publication of the first set of results today.

The Headmaster, Mr Martin Priestley, was very pleased with the outcomes. “This is a very proud day for the school: the first crop of IB students – twenty of them - have worked really hard on their Diploma courses and have got some great results. Eighteen of them did well enough to get their Diplomas, and the average number of IB points secured by Warminster pupils was 32 out of 45, the equivalent, according to UCAS, of AAB at A Levels. Competing against students from IB schools around the world, our students did really well, scoring well above the worldwide IB average of just under 30 points. In addition, we had a pass rate of 90% - again, well above the worldwide average of 83%.”

Congratulations to our top student, Katharina Ziegeler, who secured 41 marks out of a maximum of 45: this placed her in the top 4% of IB Diploma candidates in the world. According to the UCAS tariff, this is the equivalent of 4 As and 2 B Grades at A Level! Carlo Schmid scored 38 points (the equivalent of 5 A Grades at A Level) and Robert King scored 37 points (the equivalent of 4 As and a B – and more than enough to get him into Cambridge. The top mark in any subject is 7 and there were a good number of 7s recorded in individual subjects, including two each by Katharina (English and German), Robert (History and English) and Carlo (Spanish and Economics), and one each by Alice Charteris (English), Amelia Coates (Economics), Guillaume Grust (French) and Lydia Hesseling (German). The Headmaster, Mr Priestley, was particularly pleased with this aspect. “This is really encouraging because it shows that we can extend the brightest and get them to the top levels across a range of subjects.”

“The debate about IB versus A Levels will of course go on,” Mr Priestley added, “but to put things in context, our IB candidates have scored 50% more UCAS points than last year’s A Level candidates. We are great believers that the IB is not just for the very brightest. We will continue to offer our students the choice but I think that students and families, looking at these results, can feel confident that Warminster School is a great place to take the IB. I am grateful to this pioneering cohort and I am confident that many of our younger students will opt to follow in their footsteps in the coming years.”