Furness College students are celebrating after securing GCSE results that will open doors to exciting futures.
Dozens of students visited the Channelside campus to get their grades for English and maths this week after resitting their exams.
They included Students’ Union president Josh Olliver and hairdressing student who praised his tutors for encouraging him to keep trying to succeed, paying off with a grade 4 in his maths.
“I didn’t do well in school because I didn’t turn up and it showed in my results,” he said. “At college I had the encouragement of my tutors which inspired me to keep trying.
“I sat my maths exams many times and during this time built my confidence up and ran for the elections. Now I’m president of the SU, I’ve passed my maths, I’m in my third year of hairdressing and I’m making student life better.
Josh Ramsay, Dan Herbert and Daniel Steel were relieved to pass their GCSE maths with Josh and Dan now planning on applying for roles at Barrow’s BAE Systems.
“I’m happy because I can apply for BAE Systems now and maths was the only thing holding me back,” said Josh.
“I learned more in the few months I was here than I did during the whole of secondary school.”
Emily Searle and Anthony Duce also passed maths with Emily thanking her maths tutor Nina for putting on extra lessons while Anthony was pleased to secure a grade 5.
Eric Nelson, Brooke Duxbury, Adam Howard and Ellie McAteer secured grade 4 in their English GCSEs.
“I’m overwhelmed thinking about it and now I’m happy it’s a weight off my mind,” said Eric.
“Thank you to my tutors for helping get through I was really worried and now it’s all done.
Brooke said she was ‘buzzing’ and can now start to apply for apprenticeships in brickwork while Adam pledged to work hard to pass his maths in future.
Head of maths and English Hilary Johns congratulated everybody who achieved a grade 4 or above and wished them luck in the future.
“We are immensely proud of all of our GCSE students who sat their resit exams in November, regardless of the grade they’ve achieved,” she said.
“These young people have had an incredibly disrupted education over the last two years and we really wanted to offer them all the opportunity to experience a formal exam sitting and support them through this anxious and difficult time.”
