A Ukrainian refugee who spoke very little English when she came to London to escape the war scored top results today in her GCSEs.
Liliia Ternova, 17, joined Harris Academy Wimbledon in June 2022 and had to quickly get to grips with the UK curriculum and the English language.
While studying for her GCSEs, she was also revising for her Ukrainian exams and sat those at the same time. This meant she was often sitting tests after completing the British exams.
Liliia achieved 9s in maths, geography, and Russian; 8s in English language and literature and grade 8/7 in trilogy combined science.
She said: “Coming to the UK from Ukraine has been very challenging but I am very grateful for all the support my teachers have given me. They gave extra English lessons and have given me the support I have needed every step of the way.
“I’ve made some great friends here and am planning to stay here for sixth form. After that, I am hoping to go to university to study maths.
“My parents have also been fantastic helping me with my school work and encouraging me when I have found things difficult.”
Joanne Larizadeh, principal of Harris Academy Wimbledon, said: “Liliia worked incredibly hard to develop her English language skills, get to grips with our curriculum and, importantly, become a much-valued member of our school community.
“To achieve such strong GCSE results is fantastic for any student but to achieve them alongside studying for a whole other set of exams in Ukraine is truly remarkable.”
London students continued to score the best GCSE results in the country it was revealed today, as a record number found out how they did in their exams.
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their results in the first year where marking was restored to pre pandemic 2019 levels in all three nations. There was a small drop in the number of pupils awarded a standard pass.
The capital was the only region in the country where more than a quarter of papers were graded at 7 (A) or above.
