Secondary school students across Brent have been busy celebrating after making the nervous journey into school to collect their GCSE results this morning.
The national picture showed a slight improvement in pass rates with 69 per cent of all entries awarded A*-C grade (up 0.2 pc from 2014) but a slight drop (0.1 pc) in the number of students awarded the top A* grade.
While a number of schools in Brent appeared to have bucked the trend with solid improvements in overall pass rates students at Ark Academy Bridge Road, and its recently converted sister school Ark Elvin Academy in Cecil Avenue, both in Wembley, were celebrating the schools’ first ever crop of GCSE results.
The first cohort of students to sit GCSE’s at Ark Academy since it opened in 2008 set the bar high for future years with 64 pc of students attaining A*-C in five subjects including English and Maths.
Students at the academy, which specializes in mathematics, saw 36 pc of students achieve the top A*-A grades in the subject and 60 pc attain A*-B grades. In total 88 pc of students scored A*-C in maths.
One hundred per cent of students earned A-C grades in GCSE triple science course, with almost half of those entered celebrating scoring the top A*-A grades today.
In the humanities, 80 of geography students received A*-C, and 70 pc A*-B.
Students also performed well in languages, with 100 per cent of French candidates and 91 pc of Spanish entrants earning A*-C grades.
Star students included Jai Stewart, 16, who was celebrating 10A*’s and two A grades and hopes to build upon his three A*s in the biology, chemistry and physics when he moves into the sixth form in the hope of one day studying medicine at Cambridge.
He said: “I hadn’t thought about my results over the summer break, because I thought I’d just worry. When I read them this morning… you can’t really describe the feeling. I want to be a doctor, and I’m going to do my A-levels here at Ark Academy. I haven’t applied anywhere else. I love this school and I love the teachers. They don’t spoonfeed you anything
Ciara Barrett achieved an impressive total of four A*s and seven As and Clement Owusu, who spoke very little English when he joined Ark Academy four years ago was delighted to learn he had secured five A*’s, four A’s and two B’s.
Delia Smith, Ark Academy principal, said: “I’m really proud of the hard work put in by our founder students and staff who all poured their hearts and souls into building Ark Academy and have now achieved fantastic results.”
Meanwhile pupils at Ark Elvin Academy, which converted to academy status from the former Copland Community School in September last year, saw a decrease in their pass rate with 39 per cent of students gaining five A*-C grades, down from 46 pc A*-C pass rate for students in 2014.
Students performed well in languages, with 95 per cent of students scoring A*- C in Spanish and 90 per cent of students entered for French GCSE achieving the same pass rates.
Top performers included Kristof Kokosi, 16, who scored A* in english literature, maths and geography, and three further As, a B and 2 Cs.
His achievement is all the more impressive as he began his GCSEs two years ago without being able to speak or write more than a few words in English, having grown up in Hungary.
He said: “I started GCSEs without actually having much English knowledge, and during those years I’ve been working extra hard. I started by memorising 30 to 40 words each day and practised speaking, writing, because it wasn’t easy. In the second year I stayed at school until seven o’clock sometimes.”
Straight A student Olufunke Moronflu, 16, scored five A*’s and five A’s. She grew up on the nearby St Raphael’s Estate in Neasden.
The student, who says she would like to become a doctor or a teacher. said: “I’d like to study either medicine or psychology but I’m still not sure. I’ve been advised to go to Cambridge because they focus on science-y things but I’m also looking towards UCL and Imperial because they are pretty good at medicine.”
Iman Hussein was also celebrating scoring an A*, two A’s, three B’s and four C’s.
Her mother said: “We are so proud of her. I warned her that if she didn’t get her results she’d be paying back the holiday we just had!”
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