- Work Hard
- 28th Aug 2024
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- 6 minutes
Life-changing academic results and dream careers: How the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, unlocks students’ potential
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As Royal Grammar School (RGS), Newcastle, approaches its 500th anniversary in 2025, the city’s oldest learning institution is proud to announce record-breaking achievement in this year’s A-Level results.
Over the years, the school has continued to flourish as the premier independent school in the North East of England and as one of the country’s leading schools.
The school’s commitment to providing a rigorous and inspiring academic education paid dividends as RGS’ Class of 2024 have achieved exceptional outcomes, with 91.1% of grades at A*-B, 70.3% at A*-A, and 36.9% of grades at A*. Notably, 20 students achieved straight A* grades, while 79 earned all A* or A grades.
Geoffrey Stanford, Headmaster of RGS Newcastle, expressed his pride in the students’ accomplishments: “Once again we are incredibly proud of our Y13 students. Whilst RGS has become renowned for stellar academic results, these achievements have been hard won, the product of each student’s commitment, the support of our families and the dedication of our teachers.”
Careers that previous RGS students have gone on to achieve…
After finishing RGS, many Old Novocastrians go on to achieve incredible success in their desired field. Over three-quarters of this year’s leavers are headed to Russell Group Universities, and the courses students are studying vary enormously, from Aerospace Engineering to Egyptology, from Law to Landscape Architecture, and from Theoretical Physics to Zoology.
Kate Waugh, Paris 2024 Olympian
The school inspires students to flourish academically but also gives them the resources and opportunities to succeed in a number of different disciplines, including sport.
This was most recently seen during the Paris 2024 Olympic Women’s Triathlon, as Kate Waugh became RGS’s first female Olympian.
From winning the U23 World Championship in 2022 to an incredible 2023 season, Kate Waugh secured her spot in Team GB which enabled her to take on the biggest race of her career, fulfilling a childhood dream which started at RGS.
Reflecting on Kate’s time at the school, Angela Ponton, Director of Sport at RGS, said: “She was a very humble and unassuming student as well as driven but not in an overbearing way. She got fully involved in school life, and as a school, we supported her so she could balance her studies and training commitments.”
She added: “It is fantastic to see Kate competing at the highest level of her sport for Team GB. It is so well deserved, as she has worked incredibly hard throughout her time at school and in the programme she entered after school. To see her hard work pay off is amazing, and I think it shows our students that if you have a dream and you work hard, you can achieve it.”
Jim Ryan, President and Chief Executive at Sony Entertainment
Jim Ryan, who attended RGS between 1968 and 1978, went on to lead the global gaming brand, Sony Entertainment – with one of his proudest moments being the launch of PlayStation 5 in 2020, during the pandemic. He retired from Sony in March 2024 at the age of 64.
With an obvious love for his former school and Newcastle roots, Jim returned in 2023 to speak to students about his career journey and life after RGS.
He said: “RGS is a wonderful community, and my friends are the ones I made at RGS, which I think is quite something, given it’s been 45 years. I don’t keep in touch with people from university, nor from my career, but I do keep in touch with my friends from RGS. We get together, drink too much and talk about the old days.”
Giving career advice, he added: “My journey has been one of incremental progressions, and that tends to be how life is. When you’re young, you might expect that success is when something really big or an amazing opportunity happens, but quite often it’s just small wins over many years, working hard and learning along the way.”
RGS in the community
The school’s contribution to public benefit, to their community and to education both locally and beyond is at the core of everything it does. RGS looks to provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for the education, recreation or other leisure activities of the public at large with a view to improving the conditions of life in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the North East of England.
RGS believes in the infinite potential of our region and works to galvanise its community to deliver social impact. The school’s bursary campaign is just one example of this work in practice. The campaign is funded entirely by voluntary donations and has supported over 420 students since the campaign was launched in 2002.
Geoffrey Stanford, Headmaster at RGS Newcastle, added: “It takes a city to educate its children’ and this is reflected in the school’s founding legacy from Thomas Horsley, Mayor of Newcastle, who envisioned increasing opportunities and fulfilling the potential of young people in the North East. It is thanks to our amazing donors that we can change the lives of our bursary students.”
Careers support offered
While the RGS remains dedicated to a broad and challenging academic curriculum, which enables students to achieve stellar public exam results and access the most competitive courses at top Universities, the school equally focuses on the co-curricular and pastoral experience.
Balance is key to students’ long-term success, health and happiness as academic results may open up opportunities but in the 21st century it is students’ softer skills that will enable each to fulfill their potential.
RGS is a special place, known and respected throughout the whole country as well as our beloved North East. It’s a place where aspirations are high, results are outstanding, and opportunities are endless.
Their students go on to study highly selective courses at the most sought-after universities, but also leave the school realising that life outside the classroom has been equally beneficial.
Want to find out more about RGS? Attend the next Open Morning
Discover why ‘There’s More to Life at RGS’ and receive information about the fee assistance programme by attending RGS’s Open Morning on Saturday 16th November 2024, 9.30am – 12.30pm.
Register for 2025 admission now, by contacting the Head of Admissions on [email protected].
Image credit: Caroline Briggs
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