Students celebrate GCSE English and maths results after nervous wait

: Created: 23 August 2018

Sabrina Toshi, Christine Panter, Jade Rowland and Shaun Leeds were just four of this year's GCSE stars. The grades they received means no more extra studies and can finally focus all of their attention on achieving their vocational qualifications.

Sabrina, 17, from Lewisham, only came to the UK from Albania nine months ago. In that time, she has completed the first year of her level 3 media course and achieved a grade 4 (equivalent to grade C) in English and an amazing grade 7 (A) in maths. She said: “Because English isn’t my first language, I really didn’t think I would do well in this exam. I was considerably more confident with maths but didn’t expect a grade 7. I can only thank my tutors Elvira (for English) and Steve (maths) for the brilliant teaching.”

Christine, 41, from Bexley, lost her mother to cancer when she was just 15-years-old and the trauma from this majorly disrupted her studies at school. Since then, she has held a promise to herself that she would one day re-take her GCSEs and achieve them with flying colours. This week she received a grade 5 (B) in English and a 4 (C) in maths.

Clutching her certificates, Christine said: “I’ve finally done it. I’ve started my educational recovery and will take it even further next year when I begin my training to become a teaching assistant. I too want to thank my brilliant tutors for the amazing support they have shown to all their students over the past year.”

Jade, 19, from Bexleyheath, received a grade 4 (C) for her English exam and has just enrolled for the second year of her level 3 IT course. She said: “I didn’t get a result in English when I was at school and I knew I would need a good pass grade by the time I’m entering the jobs market. It shows that you have a good understanding of written and spoken English and can communicate effectively.

“I will be going off to do a work experience programme with Sage, who are located in the Shard in London in just a few weeks’ time. I can now go there with more confidence."

Shaun, 16, from Erith, wants to become a digital games designer one day. He was assessed at the beginning of last year and told that if he wanted to join his art and design level 3 course, he would need to significantly improve his English skills.

He set to work immediately and took full advantage of the extra tuition, the College’s English and maths hubs and knuckled-down to some serious study and revision. He said: “I can’t believe I’ve got a grade 4. At school, I was constantly distracted by other students who didn’t want to learn and this led me to fail my English exams. Here, the students want to learn and are all supportive of each other. I’ve achieved so much and I can now actually speak more clearly too. I feel so much more confident than I did this time last year.”

"Helen Rafferty is Head of Faculty for English and Maths at the Bexley Campus. She says: I’m delighted for the students who have done so well this year. What the results showed quite clearly, were that those who attended regularly for lessons, and made good use of our revision workshops during the half-term and Easter holidays, tended to do significantly better than those who didn’t.”

If you are considering enrolling on a course at London South East Colleges and would like to improve your GCSE core subjects (English or Maths) results, come and see us now. We are enrolling at our Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich campuses this week and next. Learn more.