A-Level results: Youngsters at The Petchey Academy thrive despite ‘stressful’ tests

Meghna Khokhar moved to the UK from Pakistan in Year 10 and spoke limited English when started at the school.

But that didn’t stop Meghna from getting three Bs in Biology, Geography and Urdu, which bagged her an internship with Bloomberg.

She told the Gazette: “The exams were pretty hard and revision was so stressful, especially because of my language barrier because I didn’t understand some questions.”

Meghna was also part of Petchey’s robotics team, which travelled to New York in 2017 and came third in the world in a tournament organised by Bloomberg.

But Keegan Desouza, 18, said: “I’m confused because I didn’t get into my first choice uni even though I got the requirements for it.”

He had hoped to study at Manchester University come September but will now be taking a year out to do an internship at Bloomberg, before enrolling at Warwick the following year.

Furkan Pirbudack is set to study aerospace engineering at Surrey University next September after scoring A*, A, B, C in his tests.

But he’s “disappointed” with the C in physics because he missed out on his first choice at Imperial College London.

Tommy Duong, who will be studying maths and economics at Bristol next year, added: “I would have preferred to do an As and then A-levels.”

Barbette Anang studied health and social care and arrived at school early to discover she got three distinction stars.

“I’m just really ecstatic about my grades”, said Barbette, who will learning midwifery at Middlesex University next year.

Raina Marfo, 18, took A-levels in government and politics, IRR, and philosophy and ethics, gaining two As and a B.

This was just below the three As she was predicted but still secured a place at Manchester University to study international relations and politics.

“I’ve had a good time at this school,” said Raina. “There has been times that were difficult but I’m glad I stayed here for my sixth form experience.”