The City of London Academy Southwark (CoLA), in Bermondsey, celebrated a strong set of results, with 79 per cent of students securing A*-C grades.
Richard Bannister, executive principal at the school, said: “It has been another fantastic year for the students at our academy who have achieved excellent exam results.
“This is their reward for all their hard work and the dedication and support by our team of excellent teachers.
“We are particularly pleased that over 95 per cent of our students are moving on to university, including Russell Group and Sutton Trust 30 institutions. This highlights true social mobility in action here in London.”
Eighteen-year-old student David Trieu, from Peckham, will head to the University College London to study physics after gaining an A* in biology and A grades in maths and physics.
“The grades themselves were what I was predicted – but not what I was predicted for the particular subjects,” he said.
“I was predicted an A* in maths so I was surprised and confused. I didn’t even personally think I’d get an A* so I’m very happy.”
Raha Mahamoud has been accepted to read law at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies) School of Law and plans to do human rights law, specialising in Asian and African communities.
She opened her results to find she had achieved an A in sociology and Bs in psychology and English Literature.
“When I opened my results I was so happy to see my grades, especially since it was a new spec this year and didn’t have past papers,” said the nineteen-year-old, from Peckham.
“I feel like because of how much work I put in, I knew I wasn’t going to do badly – but for this year, because we were the guinea pigs, it was like Russian roulette.
“This morning, when I opened my UCAS Track and saw that I had got into SOAS I was screaming and my mum was hugging me and my dad leapt out of bed.”
Jibi Ashimi, nineteen, was over the moon with his BTEC results after making the difficult decision to abandon the A-levels he was studying at another college and move to CoLA to start again.
He walked away with a Distinction* in sports science and two Distinctions in business and ICT.
“I’m hoping to do an apprenticeship and I should have one soon,” said the Bermondsey student.
“I want to do accounting or finance and I’m open to being outside London.
“I was just relieved to see my results and my mum was happy that I managed to get good grades.”