Joshua Chabala clutched the envelope containing his GCSE results in his hand with a smile on his face.
“I was so scared coming here today, I was shivering. It was all the ‘ifs’. ‘What if you fail?’ It’s just relief now,” he said. “It’s pretty much better than I predicted.”
Many of the students at Burnage academy for boys, in Manchester, were opening their results privately, going round the corner of the school building or outside the grounds, unwilling to allow their teachers or peers to see their reaction until they had had time to digest their grades. It was a momentous day, a culmination of years of hard work, which has not come easy to year 11 students who took their exams in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Top grades have fallen more than 4% on the previous year after ministers announced a return to pre-pandemic grading levels.
“I think I did all right,” said Yousaf Babar, who got the grades to get into college. “I’m a bit disappointed on one but I’m going to get it remarked. It’s a bit of hope, innit? Overall I think I smashed it.”
There were few who were disappointed with their results and the teachers even managed to get smiles out of the boys, who have done better than expected.
Shahir Shafqat was one of those celebrating – with a 5 in maths, higher than the 3 he had been expecting; he would not have to do resits. “It’s over! No more maths!” he laughed.
Omar Shehata, who arrived in the UK from Egypt with his family in 2008, got 8s and 9s in his GCSEs and also received an A* in A-level maths this year. He said: “I’m going to celebrate, maybe with brunch with my family.”
The college he plans to attend has an Oxbridge programme, which he hopes will help him get to Oxford.
His father, Mohamed, said his son had always been academic and studious. “I’m very proud. I don’t push him at all, he’s naturally talented and has made it easy for me,” he said, beaming. He said coming to the UK had been an “amazing opportunity” for his family, including his older son who had just received top A-level grades. “We’re really appreciative,” he said.
The pupils come from inner-city south Manchester, many from very deprived areas, and speak 45 languages. For most of the children at the school, English is not their first language. As well as learning a demanding curriculum in the aftermath of the pandemic, some children are learning English as they go.
Burnage academy is 37th in the UK for progress on boys’ education, making it top in the north of England. It is rated outstanding by Ofsted.
The school was keen to emphasise that academic results were only part of what the boys were there to learn.
“Helping each other, being kind, those are attributes we want them to have,” said Helen Carter, deputy head at the school. “The results are really positive, which is testament to the hard work of the students.”
But she said the government’s decision to return grades to 2019 levels was “bizarre”, as students taking their GCSEs had been severely affected by the various lockdowns – which were more severe and prolonged in Greater Manchester than most other parts of the country – in years 8 and 9.
“Those really are building blocks for their GCSEs, and narrowing the results to pre-pandemic levels ignores the learning impact of the pandemic.”
The headteacher, Karl Harrison, agreed. “They’ve worked damned hard. They were massively impacted by the pandemic and now they’re having their grades reduced down. It’s almost like the pandemic didn’t matter. It would be nice if this didn’t become the forgotten year.”
Harrison said the number one thing schools needed from the government in the future was autonomy.
“Schools need to be able to take our own decisions and school leaders are best placed to understand their individual school,” he said. “Everyone went to school so everyone has an opinion – we’re constantly told ‘this isn’t right’ by people who have never worked in education.”
He added: “Professional respect, that would help.”
