Economists of the future celebrate A Level success at Sheffield Girls'

Students and staff across the School are celebrating this week as we reflect on 100% A* grades for A Level Economics.

Despite the huge challenges faced by our students over the last two years, this A Level cohort, who sat formal, external exams for the first time this year after missing the opportunity to sit public exams for their GCSEs in 2020, have exceeded all expectations. After putting in a huge amount of effort throughout the last two years, they can now look forward to starting their degree programmes in autumn.

Holly Styan who collected three A* grades in total this week will continue with Economics at degree level, taking up her place at the University of Warwick. Holly was successful in gaining an internship at the IEA this summer, where she was singled out for the strength of her arguments in team debates and which, she said, confirmed that she wanted to pursue economics in her future career. Thinking about her time at the School, Holly said: “I’m going to miss the small community environment, it's been so supportive and all of my teachers have been amazing. It has been a long seven years but really great.”

Lahari Paladugu who picked up two further A grades alongside her A* in Economics, has completed a Summer School in Strategic Management at LSE after winning a GDST scholarship to fund the place. Lahari summed up the mood of the morning when she said quite simply; “I’m so happy!”, she will now go on to study Economics at Oxford University.

Millie Wildman, who achieved two A*s and an A, will continue her studies in Economics next year as part of her degree studies in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Sheffield, whilst Abigail Chua, who achieved an incredible four A*s at A Level will head in a different direction, pursuing her dream of studying Physiotherapy, in Hong Kong.

Female students are still under-represented in Economics and Nina Gunson, our Head, reflected on why our students are attracted to the subject: “ The popularity of Economics at Sheffield Girls’ goes from strength to strength with an increasing number of students choosing the subject at GCSE and A Level each year. Our students recognise the relevance and importance of this subject from what is going on in the world around them, but they are also inspired by the many opportunities for them to apply their learning beyond the classroom, such as the Young Economic Summit and, of course, their superb teachers.”

We have seen yet more success at the Young Economic Summit this summer. A group of our sixth formers were selected to work with German researchers to promote cross border cooperation in support of solving current issues. Our team have been working with Steffen Müller, from Universität Hamburg, to find solutions to the problem of discrimination and integrating migrants within society. The team have used a scientific approach and recent academic research to devise a targeted approach to tackle misinformation. After competing in the final states of YES at the University of Warwick, and placing in the top two UK teams, our girls will now go on to the international finals taking place in Hamburg in September.

This year 100% of pupils at Sheffield Girls’ achieved grades A* - C, with 79% of grades at A* or A. Ofqual advised that results nationally will be lower this year than 2021 due to the recognised grade inflation associated with Teacher Assessed Grades, but higher than 2019 when the last external exams were sat, and we are delighted that, despite this incredibly challenging climate, we have in fact achieved the highest grades yet.

For more information about Sheffield Girls’ and the Economics curriculum at A Level visit https://www.sheffieldhighschool.org.uk/sixth-form/a-level-subjects/