It wasn’t just the examiners who gave Loxford School of Science and Technology a vote of confidence this year.
Italian-born students Arifur Rahman and Riad Hossain, both 19, thought so highly of England’s education system they chose to leave friends and family behind and do their A levels here.
Both lads scored an A* in maths, an A in Italian and a C in physics, with Riad adding an A in AS further maths to his string of achievements.
They’re now off to study maths at uni – which, according to Arifur, was a simple choice.
“With maths you know there’s always a solution, so I feel more confident doing it,” he explained.
Riad added: “I’m pretty happy considering I only came to this country three years ago. I wasn’t born here and I didn’t study here until I started at A level.
“I’m from Milan, but the education in England is much better.”
There was plenty more to celebrate at the Loxford Lane school as students opened the results they’d been waiting months to see.
“I feel really good,” said star pupil Shuaib Chowdhary, 18, who will now head to Cambridge to study economics after achieving four A* grades in maths, further maths, chemistry and economics.
“It’s a relief to finally have it over with. I was confident, but I wasn’t expecting four A*s.”
With half the pupils at Loxford coming from free school meals backgrounds, head Anita Johnson said they’d all beaten the odds in succeeding.
Someone who’s definitely overcome adversity is Najmus Madarbux. The 18-year-old missed four months of school in Year 12 due to a knee operation, but has come out with two B grades and a C – two grades higher than the school predicted.
“By the time I got into school there were only two weeks until exams,” she explained, “but I still got ADD at AS level.
“Getting an A without revising that much made me realise if I worked hard I could succeed.”
Ms Johnson added she was “extremely proud of the exceptional results these children have attained” and thanked all staff for their efforts.
The results form the latest chapter in a success story that saw the school achieve straight “1” ratings in its April Ofsted inspection.
Click on the photo gallery above to see more smiles from this morning.
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