Billy Camden | Schools Week

Carer Natasha gets top grades after car crash a day before exams

Despite being run over a day before her exams, Ark Helenswood Academy student Natasha Burrows, who is also a registered carer for her mum, has passed six GCSEs and three BTec courses. After being hospitalised following a car accident, 16-year-old Natasha worried for her future career as she missed her first exam. “The day before […]

Benfleet secondary modern records best ever GCSE results

Pupils and teachers at The Appleton School, a secondary modern in Benfleet, are celebrating their best ever set of GCSE results today. The school has 75 per cent of pupils who achieved five A* to C, a 3 per cent increase on their previous highest results in 2012. A total of 68 per cent of students achieved five GCSE’s at […]

LIVE BLOG: GCSE results day

Results are out today at 9.30am. We are celebrating everyone’s successes, but with a particular interest in schools in challenging circumstances. We want to highlight and give some well-deserved praise to schools which have had a tough few years after being rated as inadequate by Ofsted, but are on their improvement journey. Again, we will […]

International pupils land university dreams

Two overseas students from St Joseph’s Catholic High School who couldn’t speak a word of English when they arrived in the country have landed places at Roehampton and Birmingham University. Adarsh Sapkota (pictured top) arrived in the UK three years ago on this very day from Nepal. He gained a place to read business management […]

Oscar is off to university despite losing his memory last September

Trent College student Oscar Sinfield has achieved an A in chemistry and biology and a B in maths and is off to study veterinary science at Liverpool University despite fracturing his skull last September. Oscar (pictured left) sustained the serious injury while playing rugby and was hospitalised for two months and then had to use a […]

IVF baby Lara to take up medicine place at King’s College London

Lara McNeill is going to King’s College London to study medicine after achieving A*s in Biology, Chemistry and a B in History at Ark 6th Form East Sussex. Lara, who was an IVF baby, has a passion for helping people which has driven her to secure a place to study medicine at King’s College London. […]

Bilton School secures A level results for pupils denied places elsewhere

Aspergers sufferer Matthew was denied a place at his school’s sixth form after achieving a range of C and B grades at GCSE. But Bilton School, a comprehensive in Warwickshire, spotted his potential and took him on. After two years of hard work, Matthew is today heading off to Stafford University to read ICT and […]

Single mum Stephanie wins criminology place at Nottingham University

Stephanie Cumberland from Nottingham Academy juggled being a single Mum with her studies and achieved a distinction* in health & social care, a grade C in sociology and a grade D in photography. The 18-year-old had to miss a large period of time in school due to her pregnancy, but determined not to allow her […]

EAL pupil Agata gets top grades after joining Corby school with limited English

Kingswood Secondary Academy pupil, Agata Jaremba, achieved a distinction* in business, a distinction* in travel & tourism and a grade B in health & social care after joining the Northamptonshire school from overseas with limited English. Agata moved to Corby from Poland and had only been in the UK for a short time before starting […]