Bingham: Toot Hill School students receive high results on A-Level results day

A-Level students at Toot Hill School in Bingham celebrated a successful results day today, with 89% of students achieving A* to C grades.

Among the high achievers, 47% of students received results graded A* to A.

Student Hannah Marley, of Bingham, will now be heading to Oxford to study English language and literature.

She achieved three A*s in French, Spanish and English literature and said she was pleased with her results despite a challenging year.

She said: "The teachers were really helpful. Obviously there was a lot of pressure but I'm pleased."

Hannah, who is also clinically vulnerable, said working from home had been the trickiest part of the year.

"It was awful. It was so bad because that's not how I study at all," Hannah said.

"Obviously if you're not in school, you don't have everyone around you motivating you."

Ben Walster, of Lowdham, also found working from home difficult but came away with four A*s in maths, further maths, economics and business.

"I found this year hard because I didn't really know what was going on half the time," he said.

"It was hard to plan for it, I ended up revising stuff that I didn't end up being tested on.

"I consider myself quite a disciplined person and I work hard but it was hard to motivate yourself every day.

"I'm very happy with my results. If you work hard, you get what you deserve."

Ben will be going on to study economics and management at King's College London in 2022 after taking a gap year.

Ewan Wilson, also of Bingham, did not find results day as stressful as his peers as he had already confirmed an unconditional place at a university in America.

"I've got my uni in America so that's been based on an unconditional but I was still really nervous about coming in this morning," Ewan said.

"It was on my mind for a long time so I thought that if I didn't do it, it would be something I'd regret. I did it on a long shot and it came back in my favour.

"(Coronavirus) was definitely something different and new, which I think quite a few people struggled with this year."

Ben Anderson achieved an A* in media studies, an A in history and a B in politics. He will be studying at the London College of Fashion from September.

He said: "For me, style has always been about self expression. I love the way that clothes and fashion can allow you to express yourself.

"It's been alright considering the circumstances.

"At the start of the year, I was applying for an art school which is really different. College were great because they gave me a bit of lenience and really supported me with that."

Lizzie Smith achieved the three A* grades she needed to earn a place at the University of Sheffield to study urban planning.

Lizzie said: "It's been difficult with all the online learning and everything but I've managed.

"The school have been really good at providing the online learning.

"I thought the school did really well at making sure the exams were as calm as possible and not allowing us to stress.

"I'm very pleased."

Jessica Rimmington also earned three A*s and will be off to the University of Nottingham to study medicine.

"I was just baffled and so shocked, I wasn't expecting it at all," Jessica said.

"We've not had a normal college experience and then there was the online learning as well, but the teaching was still really good."

David Curtis will also be studying medicine at The University of Lincoln.

He said: "I've always found the anatomy and science really interesting. I like the humanity that you get with medicine.

"It's been a bit of a weird year. I think it's been tough for everyone, the teachers included, because it's a different way of teaching and learning.

"I would have preferred to do it in college. You tend to be more focused in college, you're not sat at home with other things going on."

Among the group was Thomas Charlton, of Newark, who achieved three A*s in physics, chemistry and maths, and will go to study chemical engineering with nuclear engineering at Imperial College London.

"You lose that push of the teachers getting you to do things and you have to do it yourself, but I've never found that kind of work difficult," he said.

"I think wanting to do well and wanting to succeed is the biggest thing."

Daniel Mcferran also achieved A*s in maths, further maths, physics and economics and will be going on to study physics at the University of Durham.

"It's been challenging but I think the school has handled it very well," Daniel said.

"The online learning was set up quite quickly so we didn't miss too much in that respect but it's still difficult trying to motivate yourself at home.

"They were hard obviously because they're always going to be hard but the teachers directed us well."