Mansfield academy's pupils heap praise on staff on GCSE results day

After an unsettled 18 months, pupils returned to the Mansfield school to collect their long-awaited grades.

With exams having been cancelled and replaced with teacher assessments, and students having to adapt to online learning, many relied on additional support to maintain their studies, and have now heaped praise on the way the school has handled the pandemic.

Thea Bryant spoke candidly to the Chad about her struggles during her school years and how support staff helped her when she needed it the most.

Thea explains: “It’s been a rough few years – I really suffer with anxiety and basically stopped attending classes in year nine.

"I couldn’t even walk into the classroom, but Miss Bassett and Mrs Patterson never gave up on me, even getting me to work in their office.

"By year ten, COVID had hit, and as less students were in class, we started gradually getting me back into my schooling.

"By year eleven, I finally plucked up the courage to go back into my lessons, which was huge for me.

"I would not have done it without Miss Bassett and Mrs Patterson being behind me every step of the way.”

Thea was thrilled to received a mixture of 8 and 9 grades and will return to Samworth in September to continue with her A Levels, with hopes of becoming a teacher.

Emily Hitchcock was also ‘over the moon’ with her grades, especially as she struggled with chronic fatigue syndrome and PoTS (Postural Tachycardia Syndrome), both of which are debilitating health conditions.

The sixteen-year-old was forced to miss quite a bit of schooling due to ill-health and was assisted with a part-time schedule to enable her to complete her studies.

She explains: “I became really unwell, but the school were fantastic – they really went the extra mile.

"I’m over the moon with my results and feel extra emotional, and I can’t thank the school enough.”

Emily will continue with her A Levels and hopes to become a teacher.

Eleanor Jones collected her results on her sixteenth birthday, and was ‘so happy’ to receive a raft of GCSEs ranging from grades 5 to 9.

She said: “It’s gone really well, but it’s been a crazy year.

"The school have handled it pretty well though and kept us going, so I’m really grateful to them all.

"It’s nice that the hard work has paid off – I’m so happy.”

Principal at The Samworth Church Academy, Lisa McVeigh said, “In another unusual year for our students we are extremely proud of them and how they have approached their studies since returning from the second lockdown.

“As always there are some outstanding individual achievements that are well-deserved and we wish all our students the very best for their futures and know that many of them will return to our Sixth Form.

"Despite the challenges of the past two years, our vision for the Academy remains a long-term vision and consists of an ambitious wide-ranging agenda.

"We will do everything we can to achieve this for all of our wonderful students in the years ahead.”

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