Olympic diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, 16, picked up top GCSE grades on Thursday despite missing hours of school to train.
Just one week after appearing in the Tokyo Olympics, where she finished seventh in the women’s 10 metre platform event, Miss Spendolini-Sirieix was celebrating a series of top grades with friends at Harris Academy Bermondsey.
She scored six grade 9 GCSEs as well as two 7s and one 6. She plans to stay at school to study A-Levels in September and hopes to go on to study Law and Politics at university.
Miss Speondolini-Sirieix, who is the daughter of First Dates star Fred Sirieix, plans to celebrate her success by indulging in her other passion of cooking, and making a special lunch – followed by cookies.
She said: “I wasn’t expecting this – I feel very good and very proud, it’s a very strange feeling, I didn’t think I would do this well but I am very thankful to God. I wasn’t that nervous before picking up my results, I felt peaceful and now I know why.”
Training six days a week for diving, Miss Spendolini-Sirieix had to leave early most days from school, and sometimes had to arrive at school late. Some days she trained for more than six hours a day.
She said: “The school was very accommodating with all my training and competitions, so I would ask in advance for homework and for classwork and I would stay up to date as much as possible. All my teachers were very kind and they centred the work around my diving schedules and I was allowed to leave early for training and do all the things I needed to do and I am very thankful to my school for all of their support.”
She added: “I tried my hardest to catch up and do all my work as soon as I finished training or even when I was at training. Because of Covid most of my Year 11 was online so I could join while I was at training which was really good.”
Asked how GCSEs compared to competing at the Olympics she said: “During the school year I was more nervous about school, because I knew I was missing stuff and I wasn’t in school as much as my peers. But once I was at the Olympics I was like ‘GCSEs are nothing!’ I am very nervous about this competition!”
Miss Spendolini-Sirieix will now study A-levels in English literature, History and Spanish while continuing to dive. She said: “It’s very important to stay in education while I am training because once my career finishes I can enter the work world more easily.”
Speaking about her plans for Thursday she said: “I have a nice lunch I am going to cook and going to make some cookies then talk to my family. I love to cook I find it very relaxing.”
Rebecca Iles-Smith, Principal of Harris Academy Bermondsey, said: “We are enormously proud of Andrea’s accomplishments. She is a truly remarkable student and has been wonderful to teach. She is curious, creative and has a brilliant sense of humour. Andrea has worked relentlessly hard and has always conducted herself with good humour and grace. We are delighted to see her graduate with such deservedly brilliant results.”
