Students from across the Ark network were celebrating their great results on Thursday 25 August 2016. Here are a few stories from some of our schools...
Wissam
Wissam studies at Ark St Albans and achieved four A*s, five As and two Bs. She was shaking as she opened her results live on Capital FM Birmingham. She said, “I got an A* in Maths! I can't believe it, I'm so pleased! Next year I'll be studying Maths, Physics, Computer Science and Geography A-levels at Ark St Alban's. My plan is to go to university to study engineering of some sort - I'm aiming for Oxford. I think Ark St Alban's is a great school - teachers come and run Saturday sessions for us so we get all the support we need."
Wissam is also celebrating being the student who made the most progress between Year 7 and Year 11 across the whole of the Ark network - an amazing achievement.
Daniel
Daniel studies at Ark Academy. He received eleven A*s and an A (the highest grade) for Additional Maths. This is the second year of GCSE results at Ark Academy and Daniel is the highest achiever so far. Daniel will be staying at Ark Academy to complete his A-levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Geography.
Daniel credits the good teaching and longer school day for his success.
He said, "I was hoping to do well, but I'm excited I've done this well! My family will be very happy. I've put in quite a bit of work on the past few years - it's been fun, stressful and included a lot of late night revision, but it'll all be worthwhile."
Daniel hopes to one day become a Formula 1 Engineer.
Nadia
Nadia got ten A*s and an A at King Solomon Academy. She said, “I was surprised. I didn’t think I’d do that well. I’m really proud of these results. Nadia was featured in Thursday's Evening Standard alongside one of her classmates, Alaa. Between them they scooped twenty-one A*s."
Nadia told us, “I’m really happy and excited about what this means for my future. I’m really grateful to KSA and all my teachers for the support that they’ve given me."
Arash
Arash joined Ark Walworth in Year 9 after moving with his family from Iran. He got seven As, two Bs and a Distinction star. He said, "I’m feeling pretty great as I absolutely didn’t think it was going to go this way. I got good results, so I’m happy!
"I had doubts about myself and the way I did in the tests. I was a bit stressed. But it went good – so revising paid off.
"My family left Iran mainly because I wanted a better education and a better future. I spoke some English when I moved over. I started studying English in my country - but it wasn’t proper English, just the words and how to greet someone. But I learnt more over here, bit by bit, by interacting with people. And then I came to school and it got better and better. And now I’m sitting here with these results.
"I’m staying on at Walworth Academy Sixth Form and I’m planning to do Maths, Physics, Economics or Computing. It’s a bit challenging. It’s going to be university after that. All of my teachers at Walworth have helped me. I would definitely recommend this academy. It gets good results, so I guess that’s a good thing!"
You can find more success stories on our GCSE results day Storify page.