St Aloysius’ College students

AND breathe! The wait for GCSE results ended for hundreds of teenagers yesterday (Thursday) as envelopes were ripped open in schools across Islington.

The Tribune dropped in at Highbury Fields School where a third of grades awarded were a 7 or above, and 86 per cent of grades were 4 or higher – above the national average.

Student Chrishna with Islington’s deputy mayor, Cllr Jilani Chowdhury, and Cllr Sheila Chapman

Billie Hamilton-Dainty, who is planning to go to film school, said the hardest part of GCSEs was “doing things I didn’t feel like I was good at”.

She said: “I’m very happy today. I think even though I got some high grades, I think I’m most proud that I passed maths,” she said.

Student Vincent with the deputy mayor

India Gupta-Singh is waiting to hear back about her place at sixth form. “I did really well, I’m happy with my results and I’m going off to do A-levels,” she said. “I’m doing history for definite but then it depends on where I go. I want to go to university and then be a teacher.”

Elisabeth Garrett Anderson student Lara

Belle Thode, who is starting her A-levels, said: “I’m really happy with my results and I’m planning to do English, French and Spanish.”

Deputy head Kavita Vishnuram said: “We have had a fabulous set of results and seen some fantastic individual stories. Our headline figures are improved from last year – we’ve always had a very good performance rate but this year it’s even better.

Elisabeth Garrett Anderson student Tanisha

“What we’re most proud of as a school is keeping options and choices open for our students. They will leave here with a real strong foundation in terms of their academic performance at GCSE so whatever they want to pursue at sixth form, college and beyond, everything is open for them.”

Highbury Fields School student Billie Hamilton-Dainty

Pupils at St Aloysius’ RC College were joined by Town Hall councillors, as they celebrated the end of five years of hard work.

Chrishna, who scooped 10 grade 9s, will now be going to Woodhouse College to study maths further maths, physics and computer science.

Highbury Fields School students Marta Soboleva and Bella Harvey

He said: “I’m very excited, very relieved. I was 80 percent confident I would get what I wanted, 20 percent not confident in regards to grade boundaries. When I saw my results I was elated.

“I like to study maths to be able to understand impossible questions you always see. I want to be one of those who can say, ‘Oh, this is hard. I can do it’. That’s one of my motivations.”

Highbury Fields School students India Gupta-Singh and Belle Thode

He is excited to relax and play some table tennis, to “blow off some steam”.

Meanwhile, young Vincent is eyeing up a career in finance and will be heading to The London Academy of Excellence to study maths, politics and economics. He said: “The stress sometimes got to me, I’ll be honest, but the results are just a reminder of the work you put in – it’s a big plus for your wellbeing.”

Highbury Fields School student Anastasia Pastushenko

At Elizabeth Garrett School (EGA), Tanisha said: “I’m absolutely buzzing with my results, didn’t initially think I was going to pass – but passed absolutely everything and got way better than I thought I would!”

And fellow pupil Lara said: “I’m going to study politics, physics and philosophy at A-level.

“My goal in life is to address the injustices in the defence sector and stop wars and genocides.”