GCSE pupils at Oxford schools have been praised by headteachers for showing “incredible resilience” and navigating a “challenging” period in response to many receiving impressive results today (August 24).
Year 11 pupils at schools in Oxford were “very happy” with their exam results this morning, despite many telling the Oxford Mail they were “worried” about stricter grade boundaries and the impact of Covid-19.
Plenty of students at the Cherwell School in Oxford were delighted when they found out they had been awarded a collection of 9s and 8s.
Weigean Tan, 16, was successful in obtaining all 9s except for one 8 in Spanish, and she now wants to study maths, further maths and history on the back of those results.
She said: “Covid-19 was in the early years of my education so I don’t think it had a massive impact on my studies.”
Ms Tan aspires to eventually study at a university in London.
Amber Bennett, 16, is another example of a pupil who did exceptionally well after she received a total of 6 9s, with these in subjects including biology and maths.
She said she was predicted good grades but was slightly worried due to the speculation about A-level grade boundaries and harsher marking.
She said: “I was worried that if I did badly I would have to then change my idea of what I want to do in the future.
“My dad will be happy, as he took the morning off work to be there for me.”
Ms Bennett hopes to study medicine at university after studying biology, chemistry, and maths for her A-levels.
Headteacher at the Cherwell School, Chris Price, said pupils had done “incredibly well” and the “vast majority” were happy.
He said: “I want to emphasis the incredible resilience these children have shown, particularly as they joined secondary school in the early days of the pandemic.”
Mr Price said the school would be running clinics to provide advice to pupils on the next stages of their education.
He said that given the “really challenging time” pupils had endured during the pandemic it was very important to help them make the most of the “many opportunities” Oxford has to offer.
At Greyfriars Catholic School in Cowley, pupils said the pandemic had an impact, but many were still delighted with excellent results.
Thanisa Rahman said she “could have done a lot better” but she still managed to achieve 5 7s and obtained an 8 in Maths.
She said: “The marking definitely seems harsher with biology as I normally score quite a few grades higher than my grade reflects.
“I do think Covid-19 made school a lot harder, as during Covid we were doing minimal work and then we had to do lots when we returned.”
However, Temenna Azizi, 16, who was awarded a 9 in Turkish and in English literature, said her results were “better than expected” and described the year as “exciting”.
Chloe Jungers, 16, has only been at Greyfriars for a year and will return to Brussels for next year, but she pulled off a 9 in French and Physics.
Ms Jungers, who aspires to study engineering at Oxford University, said: “The year was very complicated, but I learnt so much and the teachers really helped me.”
Lyndsey Caldwell, the school’s headteacher, said: “We are really proud of our students who have done absolutely brilliantly.
“There are lots of individual stories and they have worked really hard during a pandemic.”
Ms Caldwell said the “whole country had to adapt to really difficult circumstances” and she was proud of the work the school had done in response.
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