GCSE results 2010: London Oratory
Wednesday August 25, 2010
Conor Godsall
Pupils at London Oratory Roman Catholic School had plenty of reasons to celebrate after receiving glowing results in their GCSE statements.
Relief, excitement and surprise were just some of wide ranging emotions on August 24 as boys at the school, in Seagrave Road, discovered their all-important grades after months of swotting and hard work.
Out of 190 GCSE pupils at Oratory, a staggering 93.7 per cent achieved five or more grades between A*-C including maths and English, up 0.7 per cent from last year.
Veritable whiz-kid Conor Godsall, 16, of Acton, was feeling on top of the world after receiving 10 A* grades and one A.
“I’m really shocked – I didn’t expect this at all!” he said. “I thought I would get a few A*s but not this many. I’m over the moon.”
The hard-working pupil, whose ambition is to become a diplomat or ambassador, scored A*s in biology, chemistry, physics, classical Greek, German, Latin, English, history, maths and religious studies, and an A in English literature.
“I’m not that good at English, it’s probably my worst subject, so this is just the biggest moment of shock for me,” he added. “I just spoke to my mum and she’s really shocked too. It just goes to show that all the hard work pays off.”
Conor will stay on at Oratory to tackle A Levels in history, biology, maths and German and then plans to study history and German at university.
And he said his secret to academic success was preparation, self-belief and a strict study regime.
“Start revising early, have confidence in yourself and even if you have slightly disappointing test results just keep your head down,” he said.
“You get so much holiday afterwards, so it’s worth knuckling down. If you put the effort in you get the reward.”
Meanwhile Dominic Carberry, 16, of Acton also notched up impressive grades with four A*s in English, Latin, English literature and religious studies and six As in biology, chemistry, physics, French, history and maths.
“It’s roughly what I was expecting to get,” he said. “I thought I had done a little bit better but I can’t complain.”
Dominic now plans to remain at Oratory to study maths, economics and history at A Level and Latin at AS Level.
“After that I’ll probably take a gap year and then I’d like to go to university,” he said.
Charles Rowe, 16, of Dulwich, was also feeling pretty satisfied after opening his results, which included eight As in biology, chemistry, physics, English, French, English literature, history and physical education, a B grade in maths and a C grade in religious studies.
“It’s about what I was expecting – I wanted a few A*s but I’m still happy,” he said.
“It required a bit of hard work but I found most of the subjects quite easy.”
Charles will return to Oratory for his A Levels, studying history, biology and English literature as well as economics at AS Level.
“After that I’d like to take a gap year and then go to university, although I don’t know what I want to study yet,” he said.
Back to Borough's pupils just keep on getting better news story»
