Joy, relief and pride on GCSE results day

THE wait is finally over.. it was GCSE results day for students around the country yesterday, and students on Teesside were up bright and early, eagerly waiting to see if their years of hard work and revision have paid off.

- By JADE McELWEE

Year 11 pupils collected the long-awaited envelopes at school’s across the region, and happily there were plenty of smiles.

All of the students pictured will now embark on the next stage of their lives, including college, sixth form and apprenticeships - once the celebrations and summer holidays conclude.

Today, we share some of their results, and some challenges they faced on the way.

Among the successes at Ian Ramsey CE Academy, sometime against heartbreaking odds, include Evie who not only lost her mum to cancer in September 2023, but suffered a serious road traffic accident last year, missing nine weeks of GCSE study. While Evie had the opportunity to delay her exams, she wanted to battle on. Evie achieved nine good GCSE passes including an 8 in English language.

After studying biology, psychology and geography at college she hopes to attend a redbrick university.

Cairo-born Ismail Ibrahim couldn’t speak English when he relocated to Teesside, but now he is engineering a bright future after securing top grades.

He gained 13 GCSEs at grade 7+ and will now stay on at Conyers Sixth Form to study A-levels in science, with a view to reading a chemical engineering degree at Manchester University.

Meanwhile for one student the memory of her family’s humble beginnings in India proved to be a motivating factor as Egglescliffe School student Sophia Singh collected a brace of top grades in her GCSEs; grade 9 in English language, history, RS and science, grade 8 in English literature and maths, grade 7 in music and grade 6 French.

Egglescliffe School student Sophie Boanas-Levitt had to “learn to live again” after the death of her father - and is celebrating success after reaching the next step of her journey to become a doctor.