Positive GCSE results were celebrated by students and teachers at Beacon Academy

Positive GCSE results were celebrated by students and teachers at Beacon Academy in Cleethorpes.

The class of 2024 saw many make progress against their target grades, with a number achieving the top 9 to 7 grades.

Headteacher Jason Thurley said: “I am delighted to see so many individual success stories with students achieving the highest 9 to 7 grades in the full range of subjects.”

“We’re proud of them and wish them good luck in the next stage of their learning journey.

“I would like to thank their parents / carers for their support and also wish to thank my staff team for their considerable efforts supporting the students with holiday and Saturday morning booster classes.”

One student who had overcome adversity to achieve a “fantastic” set of results was Billy-Bob Cook.

Billy’s mother Lizzie was terminally ill during his GCSE exams and passed away shortly after the examinations finished. Despite that, he achieved eight GCSE passes at grade 5 or above and also achieved a grade 8 in Sports Science.

Billy-Bob said: “I’m so happy with my results. I did quite a lot of revision every night for the exams and the school gave me extra support when I needed it, which really helped.

“My mum would be absolutely amazed by my results. I know she’s up there somewhere and I hope she’s listening to them.”

Mr Thurley said: “We are incredibly proud of Billy-Bob and all of us at Beacon wish him the very best in his next chapter. His great set of GCSE results give him a fantastic platform”.

Ashley Keatley, the academy’s Head Boy, achieved nine GCSEs at the highest grade 7-9 including; Maths, English Language, English Literature, Double Science, History, Engineering and iMedia. He also achieved a grade 9 in Acting.

He said: “I found my time at Beacon enjoyable.

“The learning side has been really good; I think the teachers here are wonderful and the resources available to us are amazing. They’ve done all they can to help me achieve.

“I enjoyed being Head Boy. I am good at public speaking, so it was great to be the face of parent evenings and speak at events.

“I think being a role model for others and setting an example is important, but nerve-wracking at times!”

Ashley is now looking forward to taking up a Maintenance and Operations Technician apprenticeship at CATCH in September.

He added: “I didn’t think college was for me, plus with an apprenticeship you get paid as well, and it just seems like a great place to be.”

Deanna Taylor achieved nine GCSE passes, including the highest grade 7-9s in English Language, English Literature, Double Science, History, Religious Studies. She also achieved a grade 9 in Acting.

She said: “I’m really pleased with my results; I wasn’t expecting to get such high grades in some of them so I’m really happy.

“All of the staff have been so supportive and helpful, and there were a lot of additional revision sessions put on for us. I attended as many as I could to try and improve my grades so it’s nice that the hard work has paid off.”

Deanna is now going to study Travel and Tourism, Music Performance and Drama and Theatre Studies at Franklin College and would love to work on a Disney cruise ship in future.

She added: “I’m really excited about going to Franklin and ready for the next chapter.”

Head Girl Megan Forster achieved nine GCSE passes including the highest grade 7-9s in English Language, Science, History and Acting. She also achieved grade 9 in Acting.

She said: “I feel really happy about my results and I’m so thankful to all the teachers for making it possible, I wouldn’t have been able to do it on my own.

“There were a lot of extra revision sessions, resources and extra time to really focus on helping us get the higher grades.

“Being Head Girl has been really surreal, but it’s been so nice to help out younger students.

“I’ve also helped on open evenings and parent evenings and I’ve been to all the shows to support them. It’s really important to connect with different people around the school.”

Megan, who is going to Franklin College in September to study A Levels in English Language, Music and Performing Arts. added: “I’d love to be on stage in future but also do a teacher training qualification because I’ve always wanted to teach, and have been really inspired by my teachers here.”

Ella Lloyd achieved nine GCSE passes including the highest grade 7-9s in Maths, Double Science and Sports Studies.

She is going on to study Maths, Chemistry and Biology A-Levels at Franklin College, and hopes to pursue a career in dentistry.

She said: “I’m just so relieved; I tried so hard! Since Year 9, I’ve been getting up every morning to revise and always had my head in a book, so I’m so pleased to get these results.

“I’ve really enjoyed my time at Beacon; the teachers have been amazing, and I’ve had some brilliant experiences. I was Head of Sports, so I got to go to Wimbledon, which was so exciting.”

Mr Thurley was now looking forward to reopening the school to its largest ever number of students and teachers next month.

“The academy is once again heavily oversubscribed for Year 7 and over 680 children will attend in total,” Mr Thurley said.

“Next year is the last academic year in our current building before we move into a fantastic, state-of-the-art, brand new building in September 2025. It is a very exciting time for our academy”.

“We are also pleased that a planned open evening for Year 6 students transferring to secondary education in 2025 will take place on Wednesday, 11^th September between 5pm and 8pm.”