gcse results see plenty of smiles at meridian high school

There were plenty of smiles at Meridian High School today when students collected their GCSE results.

Amy Anderson, Head of School at Meridian, said: "We are very proud of all of our students and each student’s individual successes. The results they have achieved reflect their hard work, ambition and resilience.

"We look forward to building on our success during the new academic year through our revised curriculum and look forward to supporting our young people through our challenge, learn, achieve ethos."

Harvey Friend was one of the top achievers at Meridian with results including eight 9s. He will now take A Levels in biology, chemistry, psychology and English Literature, and hopes to take a course in neuroscience and psychology at University before starting a career in forensic mental health.

"For me, my time at Meridian was all about hard work and finding motivation," Harvey said. "I think we're quite a small school, but that just means I got to develop really close relationships with both students and teachers. Everybody supports each other, and there's always somebody who will help you.

"I'm really happy that all the hard work I put into lessons and revision paid off, especially since I started early enough to see major improvements in my mock results, which have helped me to get the grades I have now. Considering the pandemic, I'm happy that my chances for high grades weren't ruined."

Katie Aveline was another celebrating excellent GCSE results with five 9s and four 8s, and said she was delighted with her results.

"I think that my hard work definitely paid off. I'd say during the last year, the school has really supported high achievers," she said.

"I'm really pleased with my core subject grades because I worked really hard for them, especially with the challenges we've had to face. My next steps are to go sixth form to study sciences so hopefully I can pursue a career in medicine in the future."

Meanwhile Brandon Hooper is gearing up to study economics, government and politics and religious studies at A Level after securing one 9, six 8s.

"I am most happy with my maths and my combined science grades," he said. "English is probably the subject that I had to work the hardest for because it was my weaker subject. 

"The school and teachers helped me because when I didn’t want to put the work in, I was always pushed to do better and to work hard. The teachers were able to give us the motivation to succeed when we needed it most."

A career in law awaits Bobby Cooper after he collected two 8s, three 7s, and two 6s and says his time at Meridian has shown him he is capable of realising his goals. He's now going to study government and politics, law and psychology at A Level.

"I am most pleased with the progress I made in English because at the start of Year 10, it was the weaker of my core subjects. The progress I have made in subjects like English has shown me what I am capable of and that is going to motivate me going forward.

"I think all of my subjects as a whole have improved hugely and this is due to the new teachers we've got, growing up a bit and realising that I need to get these grades to move forward. 

"Meridian High School has been amazing. I did not appreciate it as much when I was younger but I do now and I am really going to miss the teachers and my year group."

After securing three 6s and five 5s, Panda Achiek is also looking forward to a positive future.

"I'm very pleased because I achieved better than I expected. I have been panicking, thinking that I wouldn't do as well as I did. My results are going to benefit me a lot in the future. 

"Meridian has really helped me achieve these grades, the teachers at Meridian believe in you and have supported me in working really hard before the whole lockdown. I hope after my A Levels I can go to University to study midwifery."