Pupils at Ark Globe Academy in Elephant and Castle collected their hard-earned GCSE results on Thursday morning.
Goodness Japhet-Mathias appeared almost stunned as she opened her envelope to find six A*s and five As.
“I feel proud,” she said. “I’m happy I finally finished and I’m excited to start my A-levels. All I have done this summer is revise. I’m doing Maths and I heard it’s really hard so I’m getting started now.
“I’m on to the next stage of my life and I want to do even better.”
Her classmate Carlin Peton, who commutes from Crystal Palace, got four A*s and seven As.
“I’m so happy and feeling so grateful,” Carlin said. “I have high standards for myself and I’m excited to have met and exceeded them.
“I am going to study Maths, Music and Physics, but I’m going to do them at another college where I can focus on music. My main instrument is a drum kit but I also play bass and piano.
“I was very focused all year. My head was down and I had to sacrifice some sleep and free time. Sometimes people would be going out but I would be staying in, staying focused on my goal.”
Carlin’s marks were matched by Chike Nwaenie, who said: “I want to be an entrepreneur or a trader so I’m going on to study mathematics and economics.
“I got such great results because of amazing teachers who could always be depended on to go that extra mile for us.”