As GCSE students receive their grades across the country, we went down to Newman RC College, in Chadderton, to see how students had done.
It was a busy day for assistant headteacher Denis Maxwell, who spent the day on his feet chatting with students about their options.
He said he was “Really, really chuffed" adding: "Obviously, we do this every year. It’s a really enjoyable day every year.
“I’m dead, dead proud of them after working so hard for the whole year and everything that’s happened. Couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Nationwide, the proportion of GCSE entries awarded top grades has fallen from last year, but is still higher than before the pandemic.
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Mr Maxwell said the school was seeing a similar trend, adding: “Obviously the grading has returned to the 2019 levels from pre-pandemic, which affects the grade distribution.
“We’ve still got a great set of results that we’re really proud of. Students will have worked dead hard and put all that in, they’ll have obviously been disadvantaged when sitting their exams, but they’ve worked really hard and done really, really well.”
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Among those collecting their results today was Oldham Athletic youth player Daniel Ephrem.
The 16-year-old got a range of results, including some eights and sevens, equivalent to between the old A and A* grades.
However, he won’t be going to college, deciding instead to pursue football full-time, hopefully becoming part of the adult Latics squad.
“I’m over it now, school’s over. I’ll miss learning and stuff, but school, I can live without it, to be honest,” Daniel said.
Friend Valentino Ordoñez Imafidon said he was planning to do A-levels before going into engineering.
Other students were planning to go to college.
Chelsea Eyeoyibo was celebrating her ‘amazing’ results in the hall with mum Maureen, who said she was ‘really proud’.
She is now planning to do maths, English and 3D design at college before eventually going into aerospace engineering.
The Chadderton student said: “I feel like I’ve got amazing results, I’ve got mainly sevens, sixes, nines and eights.”
She hopes to go to America to pursue her career, adding that she wants to “work with Elon Musk and SpaceX or something”.
Alex Graham said he was off to college to study biology, chemistry and fashion & textiles, with his fourth subject still undecided.
The 16-year-old said he had a mixed set of results, and said he was ‘expecting more’ in his favourite subject, science, despite getting a seven and eight.
However, it wasn’t all disappointment, with Alex getting better than expected in Maths.
“I got a six in Maths, which I’m really shocked about because I got nine marks on my last maths paper,” he added.
Science seemed to be loved by many Newman students.
Fallon Harling said she was happy with her results ‘across the board’.
She said: “My favourite is maths but I’m most happy with my results in my sciences. I’m going to sixth form and I want to do biology, chemistry and psychology and then go on to university and become a heart surgeon.”
Fallon added that she was scared to leave the school. She said: “I don’t want to leave, I feel like I need another year here, I don’t know if that’s because I missed a year, but I feel like I do need another year at school.
“I’m guessing that’s because of how much we missed from Covid, but I don’t know I just feel like I’m not finished!”
This crop of GCSE students is the first since the pandemic to receive grades based on exams, with previous year groups having their grades assigned by teacher assessment.
Student Manjun Xie was feeling ‘really happy’ after doing better than he expected.
Manjun said he felt ‘stressed’ in the exams, and he found studying in the pandemic difficult.
He said: “It was really easy to get distracted during the pandemic because screens were everywhere and not everyone was focussed on their lesson, even on online classes, I wasn’t focussed on online lessons.
“It definitely took a toll on my knowledge, but I’m glad that I came to this school – I only came to this school in Year 10 and in the first mocks and meeting the people that I know now made me realise I had to work harder in school to have a better life.”
He’s now planning on going to college, followed by going to university abroad, either in Japan, China, or Singapore to study finance.
Friends Gemma Mikwigize and Cassie Copple also received great results. Both are going to continue their studies in French at college, with Gemma planning on studying biology, chemistry, psychology and French at Blue Coat, and Cassie off to study English literature, French, history, and ancient history.
Cassie said she wasn’t sure what she would do afterwards, and would ‘just see where I go’.
She added: “I’m just relieved more than anything, the stress is gone. I’m happy with what I’ve got.”
Chris Lang was another student who did better than he thought, with the teenager expecting to get all twos but delighted to realise he had received higher grades.
Chris said he was happy to leave school behind, adding that he would be going to college to study business, with a view to go into entrepreneurship.
Kotryna Gegeckaite said she was feeling proud of herself following her results. She wants to do architecture following her A-levels at Blue Coat Sixth Form.
She said: “I’m hoping to do maths, something, and art, because I want to go on to do architecture.
“I’m also doing French!”
Kotryna said studying through the pandemic was ‘OK’, but that it made it ‘more difficult’ when it came to GCSEs, with the difference in the study environment.
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