Category: Uncategorized

A Sixth Form student at Saint Benedict has won one of the top prizes in a national essay writing competition.

Kinga Mierzejewska, in Year 13, entered the National College of Humanities essay writing competition and came third out of 500 entries. She won £250 and was offered the opportunity to visit the college in London.

The Sixth Form student decided to enter the competition after hearing about it through school.

She said: “There were eight essay titles to choose from and I chose the History one which was ‘How does humanity adapt to climate change?’. I thought I could link it to other subjects and research the different themes throughout history.

“When I entered the competition I didn’t expect to hear anything back, I just thought I would try it out. Then the college rang me and told me I’d come third and that they would like to meet me so I went to London. I was shocked but quite happy.

“I am not 100 per cent sure what I want to do next yet but I think I would like to go to university and study languages.”

Mrs Boyce congratulated Kinga on her achievement.

She said: “Kinga’s award is magnificent and a real reflection of her hard work and dedication. We are incredibly proud to have Kinga in our Sixth Form and know this is just the very beginning of her experiencing success – there is more to come for Kinga!”

A Saint Benedict student who was once told he would never walk or talk is celebrating after winning an award.

Noah Gash scooped the Inspirational Young Person Award at the Derby Youth Awards run by Derby City Council.

The award recognises a young person who has overcome a great barrier, or has shown great courage, becoming an inspirational role model to other young people within their community, or the city.

Noah was seriously ill from birth and spent a significant amount of time in hospital, where he was told he wouldn’t be able to walk or talk.

Now he attends mainstream school at Saint Benedict, is a sports leader and has completed his Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award. He also volunteers on local litter picks due to his passion for the environment.

The 15-year-old said he was thrilled to win the award which was presented to him at a ceremony at Rolls-Royce Pavilion in Derby.

He said: “I found out I’d been nominated when my mum called me into the kitchen. I actually thought I was going to get into trouble but she told me I’d been nominated by school for an award. I felt so proud when I won, it was amazing. My mum and dad were really proud of me. I was really, really proud of myself.”

Noah’s mum Jo said he thoroughly deserved the award after everything he’d been through.

She said: “When Noah was born he had to be resuscitated and although we took him home, two weeks later he was diagnosed with suspected meningitis and was in hospital again. We came home after that and then he started vomiting and losing weight, this continued for a couple of months. He ended up spending four months in hospital because he was failing to thrive but they couldn’t find out what was wrong no matter what tests they did.

“One consultant told us he would never walk or talk and he was also diagnosed with dyspraxia. He saw a geneticist at Nottingham City Hospital and we found out that he had two chromosomal abnormalities.

“He would stop breathing in the night every so often and he needed specialist food and medication. He had physiotherapy and occupational therapy, he had splints and would fall over all of the time but we decided we would treat Noah just like our other children. He couldn’t talk for a long time and we used to sign with him. He went to a mainstream primary school and he has a real ‘can do’ attitude and wants the same things as everyone else does for their future.

“When it came to secondary school we looked at special schools but he did much better than expected in his SATs at primary school so came to Saint Benedict. He always takes part in the 1,200 metres at sports day and never loses. Noah’s sister Molly says that he is her hero.

“He was really excited when he won the award; he was just so happy and he was the most grateful recipient.”

Noah has a passion for the environment which comes from dad, Mark, who is an ecologist, and wants to inspire children across Saint Benedict.

The teenager, who is studying for his GCSEs, said: “I do assemblies and litter picks. We made bird feeders from plastic bottles and we have planted trees. I would like two students in each form to be able to plant a tree on school grounds, all the way from Year 7 to Year 13.”

Mrs Boyce said: “We are so proud of Noah for receiving this award. He is an inspirational pupil and contributes daily to the life of Saint Benedict Academy in all he does. I am confident Noah will go on to receive more awards and recognition for the work he does at other points in his education and life.”

Saint Benedict has celebrated rises across the board in its GCSE results.

Kevin Gritton, Headteacher, said: “We are very proud of our Year 11 pupils at Saint Benedict who received their GCSE results today. They have shown incredible determination and resilience in the face of all the disruption they have had to contend with over the past three years.

“The school’s Attainment 8 score, which is a key measure of results across all subjects, rose to 50.7 up from 48.6 in 2019. 66% of pupils achieved 4 or above in both English and Maths, up from 59% in 2019 and 46% achieved 5 or above in English and Maths, up from 39% in 2019.

“The school also saw a big rise in the percentage of grades at 7-9, with 27% of all grades at 7 or above, up from 22% in 2019 and 46% of all grades were 6 or above. We were also particularly proud of our pupils with Special Educational Needs who achieved an Attainment 8 score of 38.6, a massive rise from 29.8 in 2019.

“There were many individual success stories, one of particular note was Louis Davie who achieved 10 grade 9s and a Distinction Star in his Level 2 Engineering course.

“We look forward to welcoming many of our students as they return to our Sixth Form and we wish all of them the very best for the future. They really have done themselves proud.”

Zahra Manzoori, 16, studied for her GCSEs in one year after joining Saint Benedict at the start of Year 11, having moved to the UK from Singapore.

She said: “I was in Singapore for three years and in India for three years and I had been studying the International Baccalaureate which is made up of different subjects. When I started in Year 11 in September it was like a crash course in GCSEs as I had to do my mock exams in November. I’ve passed everything and I’m really, really happy.”

Luke Piercy, 16, passed all of his GCSEs and is now looking forward to staying on at Saint Benedict in Sixth Form.

Salahudeen Iqbal, 16, achieved grades ranging from 6 to 8.

He said: “I’m really happy with my grades, they are what I need to stay on at Sixth Form where I’m going to study Physics, Maths and Engineering. I am hoping to study architecture at university.”

Sam Long, 16, achieved grades ranging from 5 to 8, including an 8 in Maths.

He said: “I’m really relieved and I can’t complain about my grades. I’m happy with my Maths as my dad is a Maths teacher here. He was nervous for me and nervous for his class. I’m going to study Maths, History and Government and Politics at Sixth Form.”

Logan Brady, 16, achieved 6s and 7s and is going on to join the Army.

Vashti Boni, 16, achieved grade 7s and is going on to study Chemistry, Biology and Geography at Sixth Form.

She said: “I’ve been so scared and worried but now I’m really happy with my results.”

Students are celebrating after receiving their A Level results this year.

There was a significant rise on the last set of externally assessed results in 2019, prior to the Covid pandemic.

Fifty per cent of all grades are A*-B, compared with 40.1% in 2019 and nearly 80% of all grades are A*-C.

Two of the students with the highest grades were Godwin Jenner, 18, who achieved A*s in Maths, Physics and Chemistry and Georgi Georgiev, who achieved A*s in History, English Literature and Sociology.

Georgi, 18, came to the UK from Bulgaria around 10 years ago and could barely speak any English.

He said: “I am quite shocked by my results. I am going to study Sociology at Loughborough. When I told my mum my results she said I should have applied to Cambridge.”

Godwin is going on to study Aerospace Engineering at the University of Sheffield.

He said: “Online learning for part of Year 12 was tough as it was harder to ask for help. When we came back into school it was great and the teachers were really supportive.”

(Godwin is on the right, pictured with Elliot Chua)

Anastazja Zaleska, 18, achieved an A in Sociology, an A in Polish, a B in Psychology and a D in Biology. She will be studying Primary Education at the University of Plymouth.

She said: “I was stressed, last night I was crying dry tears. When I knew I had got into Plymouth it felt amazing. My grades are better than I was predicted, I honestly thought I’d failed Biology so I was really surprised with that grade. I am really looking forward to going to Plymouth.”

Marek Bakota, 18, achieved an A* in Music, an A in Maths and a B in Psychology. He is going on to the University of Manchester to study Music.

He said: “I’m just happy. I kept seeing news articles about the results saying that grades would be lower so now I’m relieved.”

Andy Xu, 18, achieved an A* in Engineering, an A in Maths and a B in Physics. He will be going on to the University of Sheffield to study Aerospace Engineering.

He said: “I really had to pull it out of the bag. It was hard as we were learning at home for part of Year 12 but when we came back the teachers were really supportive.”

Amy Short, 18, achieved an A in Maths, an A in Spanish and a B in Physics. She has secured a four-year apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce in Derby.

She said: “I am so excited. The application process for Rolls-Royce was tough. There was an online assessment which took hours then a five-hour interview which included a one-to-one and team building exercises. I didn’t have a back up, this was my only choice. I didn’t want to go to university.

Another student taking on an apprenticeship is Finlay Riggott, 18. He achieved a Distinction * in Business, an A in Maths and an A in Geography. He will be going on to an apprenticeship at Cosy Direct in Derby.

He said: “I got better grades then I needed. I feel relieved now.”

Elliot Chua, 18, achieved an A* in Maths, an A in Chemistry and an A in Biology. He is taking a gap year and after that he is planning on applying to universities to study Medicine.

Nikola Sobczak, 18, achieved a B in English, an A* in Psychology and a Distinction * in Media. She is going on to study Psychology at the University of Nottingham.

She said: “I’m really surprised and happy. I knew I had got into Nottingham before I got my grades as we could log on and find out. There was a countdown online before I found out which was a bit nerve-wracking.”

Head Boy Donal Hay, 18, achieved an A in English Literature/Language, a Distinction in Media and a B in Religious Studies. He is going on to study Journalism at Manchester Metropolitan University.

He said: “I needed B,B,C so I’m really happy with my grades. When I told my mum she cried her eyes out. I’ve always been interested in Journalism and the course is multi-media so it’s a bit of everything. Manchester is a good city.”

Rose Babu, 18, achieved an A in Sociology, an A in Biology and a B in Chemistry. She is going on to study a Masters in Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham.

She said: “I woke up between 6 and 6.30am and couldn’t log on until 8am to find out if I had got into university. When I found out I had got into Nottingham I cried, I really wanted to go there. It was hard because we spent part of Year 12 learning online and I didn’t like that. I think it’s much better to actually do the exams, we didn’t do our GCSE exams because of Covid.”

Kevin Gritton, Headteacher, congratulated all of the students and said he was thrilled with the results.

He said: “We are delighted with A Level results at Saint Benedict this year where we have seen a significant rise on the last set of externally assessed results in 2019.

“50% of all grades are A*-B, compared with 40.1% in 2019 and nearly 80% of all grades are A*-C.

“Our vocational subjects also performed strongly, in addition to the A Level subjects. For example, in Level 3 PE, 82% of grades were Distinction Star or Distinction, in Media 80% were at these top grades and in Applied Business, 75% were at Distinction Star and Distinction.

“Our average point score per A Level entry was 34.97, up from 31.12 in 2019, when the school achieved the highest value added score across the city, county and Diocese.

“Our average Level 3 Applied entry score was 30.83, up from 26.21 in 2019, with the average applied grade in 2022 being a Distinction across 70 qualifications.

“Some particular success stories included Georgi Georgiev and Godwin Jenner, who both achieved thee A* grades at A Level.

“The vast majority of our students have achieved their first choices at University and we are supporting those who are currently exploring their options through the clearing process.

“We are very proud of all of our students who have managed a very turbulent few years with great maturity and resilience and we wish them all the very best for the future.”

Well done to the cast of our school show, Hairspray, who sang at the Commonwealth baton relay at Moorways Sports Village in Derby! The relay began in October 2021 and is on a route to visit all 72 nations and territories of the Commonwealth.