Ian Moore, Principal at St James Academy said: “I am very proud of our achievements. We now have a track record of sustained improvement and once again have increased our 5+ grades in English and Maths. Staff at St James have worked tirelessly to support our learners throughout their journey and being part of Dudley Academies Trust has enhanced our ability to achieve all that we have. Most importantly our learners leave St James with enhanced life chances and opportunities to be successful. Earlier this year we were graded good by Ofsted and this year's results further validate that judgement. The community we serve now has a successful academy to be proud of and young people have an academy which offers them the life chances they deserve.”

Jo Higgins, Chief Executive Officer said: “This year, 2024 outcomes are the best that have ever been achieved by schools in our Trust. All schools improved on last year’s results and more learners than ever achieved the higher grades, 7 to 9. I am delighted that all our schools are sustaining success enabling our learners to have the best life chances possible. The Trust’s aspirant culture and positive climate for learning are strong features of our schools and it is great to see that this year’s results correlate to recent Ofsted’s inspections which resulted in good judgements. Today, it is wonderful to see the rewards for our learners’ hard work and determination to dream big and achieve. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our staff for their ongoing support and commitment to our learners and to their parents and carers for working with us to ensure that our young people can flourish. Congratulations and best wishes to our year 11 learners as they move onto the next phase of their education, and I wish them every success for their future.”

There are so many learners at St James Academy who have achieved excellent results. Here are some exceptional examples:

• Adiele Walsh: Top Achieving learner in the cohort 3 x Grade 9, 2 x Grade 8, 2 x Grade 7, 1 x Grade 6
• Amaad Khalil: Top Achieving Male learner in the cohort with a strong set of results including 1 x Grade 9 and 3 x Grade 8
• Gilbert Appiah: Strong set of results including 2 x Grade 9, 1x D*,2 x Grade 8 and 3 x Grade 7
• Jaishmeet Kaur: Our Student president bagged a strong set of results including: 1 x Grade 9, 1 x Grade 8, 5 x Grade 7
• Reece Hurlston: Our Student president bagged a strong set of results including: 1 x Grade 9, 1 x Distinction, 2 x Grade 7
• Abdul Wahidi: made exceptional progress from when he joined us in year 7, he bagged a strong set of results achieving Grade 5 in English and Maths.
• Michelle Brandao: made exceptional progress from joining us in year 7, she bagged a strong set of results including 1 x Distinction in catering and 1 x Grade 7 in Maths.
• Ebony Belnavis: We are extremely proud of Ebony for being recognised by OCR as one of the top performers in OCR’s GCSE Art and Design: Photography in the June 2024 examinations achieving Grade 9.
• Christabel Opoku: An inspiration to us all, Christabel is new to the country and new to St James and worked extremely hard to achieve Grade 5 in Maths and English.
• Mehran Choudhry: did not stop ‘Dreaming Big’, Mehran joined us in Year 11 new to the country and new to St James and worked extremely hard to achieve a smashing set of results: Grade 7 in Maths and English Literature.
• Damien Bayliss: showed resilience as he rose above the challenges he faced during the exam series, bagging a strong set of results including: 2 x Grade 8, 1 x Distinction, 4 x Grade 7

We were also thankful to Sonia Kumar, MP for Dudley, for joining us at St James Academy to celebrate the accomplishments of our learners.