St. Mary’s College students celebrate excellent GCSE results

Students and staff at St. Mary’s College, Crosby, are celebrating another excellent set of GCSE results this summer.

Strong overall outcomes

Well over a third of all passes at the school (39 per cent) were at the highest 9–7 grades, up from 32 per cent in 2024 and 35 per cent in 2023. More than a quarter of candidates (26 per cent) achieved seven or more passes at these top levels, an increase on 21 per cent last year and 20 per cent the year before.

Almost two thirds of students (65 per cent) recorded ten or more passes, with many achieving 11 or even 12 GCSEs in total.

Staff at the school believe that these results reflect the broad and balanced curriculum at St. Mary’s, and the college’s longstanding policy not to impose restrictions on the number of GCSE subjects that students can take.

Standout individual success

Among many success stories, two 16-year-old pupils stood out as joint top performers. Anna Sugden, from Crosby, and Callum Critchlow, from Maghull, both took 11 GCSEs and achieved ten grade 9s and one grade 8.

For both students, their single grade 8 was in Further Mathematics, an exceptionally difficult qualification in which they were just a few marks short of the grade 9 boundary – and therefore a clean sweep of top grades.

Anna said: “I feel relieved now I have my results and am very thankful for the support I had from my teachers, family and friends throughout the exam period. I’m excited to join the Sixth Form at St. Mary’s to study biology, chemistry, classics and psychology.”

Callum added: “I am absolutely delighted – I couldn’t be happier. I just want to thank all of my teachers and family for their amazing support over these last few years. I wouldn’t have achieved these results without them.

“I can’t wait to embark on my journey in the St. Mary’s Sixth Form, to continue to achieve highly in this amazing school, and will be taking A-levels in biology, chemistry, maths and further maths.”

Principal’s praise

St. Mary’s College principal, Mike Kennedy, praised the GCSE ‘class of 2025’. He said: “We are very proud of the achievements of our students this summer which reflect all their hard work over the last five years, and the fantastic support they have received from their teachers and families over this period.

“We have finished in first place in the GCSE results table in Sefton for several years now, and we are confident that when the next set of school performance tables is published by the Department for Education, we will be ‘top of the league’ once again.”

Looking to the future

Mr Kennedy also highlighted the importance of GCSE examinations in each individual student’s educational journey. He explained: “Achieving good GCSE grades is a firm foundation on which candidates can build subsequent success at A-level, at university and in their future careers, so these results bode very well for the future.”

Staff at St. Mary’s are also pleased with the value-added performance of candidates again this year, with many students doing better than their predicted exam grades – further proof of the excellent progress that students make at the school.