Mayor Anjna Khurana congratulated pupils at City of London Academy Islington

PUPILS across the borough celebrated stellar GCSE results yesterday (Thursday).

It was all smiles at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (EGA) in Angel. Student Setayesh Nasri arrived from Afghanistan as a refugee in 2022, able to say little more than “hello” in English. But she opened her results to the news that she had achieved a grade 9, four 7s and five 6s.

She said: “Until I was confident in English, every day I would take my notes, use Google Translate to translate it to my own language, learn it, understand it and then translate it back to English and learn it again. It was kind of a lot of work at first, but it became a habit.”

Students at Central Foundation Boys’ School achieved impressive results

Setayesh found her passion in numbers and will go to St Mary Magdalene Academy to study maths, computer science, economics and physics, with sky-high ambitions beyond. She hopes to become an astronaut.

Claps and cheers echoed down the halls of St Aloysius, as teachers and students celebrated a better set of results than last year, including a full sweep of 10 grade 9s or 8s and several boys with grades 9-7.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson pupils celebrating their scores

Alfie Golbourn was pleasantly surprised when he opened his envelope, securing a majority of 6s and 7s. He said: “I didn’t think I was going to get these grades. At the start of the year my grades didn’t look like this.

“Revising was stressful because I’ve never really revised at all. I just had to try towards the end.”

He said he didn’t sleep on Wednesday night, and came straight from the airport to open his results after being in Spain with his family.

St Aloysius student Alfie Golbourn opening his results, surrounded by friends and assistant headteacher Sophia Kisten

Jody Paul received six 9s and one 7. Asked how he handled exam pressure, he said: “The best way to deal with it is just do it. I spent all my time on revision and everything. I didn’t really have much free time.”

Jody said next year he wants to get more into music, as he recently started playing the bass this summer.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson student Setayesh Nasri

The Mayor of Islington, Councillor Anjna Khurana, congratulated pupils during visits to City of London Academy Islington and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson this morning, and said: “There was such an infectious buzz of excitement among the students today, which was such a joy to be part of.”

City of London Academy Islington pupils

An impressive 35 per cent of all grades at Central Foundation Boys’ School were awarded at a grade 7 or higher, with one in ten grades being at grade 9.

Headteacher Jamie Brownhill said: “This is an excellent set of exam results. My congratu­lations to the students for all that they have achieved. These results are a consequence of the students’ persistence, academic curiosity and sheer hard work.”