Connor is a great example of “being better than you thought you could be”. By his own admission he did less than impressively when he took his GCSEs, but a new-found determination saw him hit the heights with exam success this time round.
Connor achieved A*s in Maths, Chemistry and Physics and is starting a Physics degree at Imperial College London in October.
Predicted just average grades after achieving merely modest GCSEs, he surpassed even his own expectations to gain a place at one the world’s most the prestigious institutions.
Connor, recently interviewed by the local media, said: “I never thought I would be at this point now. I was really down when I got my GCSE results so this is a complete turnaround. I hadn’t been interested in school and saw exams as just something you had to do. But after getting those grades it just hit me. I wanted to do A levels and I wanted to go to university. I felt I just wanted to knuckle down and achieve more and make my family proud. So I got my head down and worked hard and here I am today.”
Doing subjects which really interested him spurred Connor on and encouraged him to apply to Imperial College London. He needed two A* and an A to get in and was apprehensive about reaching that target. “I thought I could get a good result in Maths but then obviously it was up to the other two, so I was really nervous up to about receiving my grades. You can check online with UCAS whether you have got into university and I said I wasn’t going to do that but when me and my dad got to the school car park, (on Thursday morning) I just had to check – I didn’t want to be disappointed – and I’d got in. I was a bit teary-eyed and so was my dad. I knew I had two A*s at that point but didn’t know I’d got a third. I was just over the moon.”
Connor is doing a four year course at ICL and ideally would love to turn his passion for Physics in to a career but realises there is a long way to go.
Celebrations of his success include a hospitality package with a meeting with one of the class of ‘92 at Old Trafford, the home of his favourite football team, Manchester United.
Among other individuals who stood out for 2016 were Joe Aziz with three A* and one A going to Birmingham to study Theoretical Physics, Joe Murfitt who achieved the same high grades and is also off to Birmingham to do Medicine and Tamsin Durrant, again off to Birmingham University, after gaining three A* to do Chemistry, while Divesh Jina attained three A* and will be going on to study Engineering.
Chris Parkinson, Principal, said: “We have a policy of challenging students to be better than they thought they could be and to take the hardest A level subjects such as Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Physics. These subjects alone have achieved an amazing 60 A* and A grades between them. These results are a testament to the hard work and commitment which our students and staff have put in over the last two years.”