Top GCSE performances have delighted Jewish school pupils and their teachers.
Reflecting on his nine A*s and one A, Yavneh College’s Aron Carr said he had not expected to do so well. “I worked hard and had very good teachers.” He will now take AS-levels in history, maths, economics and modern Hebrew.
Another pupil at the Borehamwood school who was pleasantly surprised by her results was Jessica Franklin, whose 10 A*s keep her on track for a career in medicine. Helena Raymond-Hayling gained 12 A*s. Joshua Peters (nine A*s and an A) will be taking English literature, history, geography and biology in the new academic year. “I love writing essays and think human conflict is interesting, so I hope to become a lawyer,” he said.
All Yavneh GCSEs were passed, with 50 per cent at A*-A. Ninety-four per cent of students achieved at least five A*-C grades.
At JFS, a number of students were fast-tracked, sitting AS exams a year early. For GCSE, 56 candidates achieved an A* or A in at least nine of their exams and all candidates in French and Hebrew scored no worse than A.
Ephraim Levinson (eight A*s and two As) was selected to take an AS-equivalent Extended Project Qualification, gaining an A*.
“It’s a dissertation-style project that was recommended by my English teacher,” he explained. “I did it on T S Eliot and another teacher arranged an interview with Anthony Julius, who wrote T S Eliot, Antisemitism and Literary Form. He was very informative and interesting.
“I had to work very hard and my family put up with a lot of my stress — so well done them.” Ephraim is “looking at a career in law, politics or academia”.
Also fast-tracked was Isaac Virchis, who achieved As in AS French and religious studies to go with his 11 A* GCSEs.
“There was a lot of work, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.” he said. “I’m not particularly organised and had a lot of help from the school.” Jonathan Shamir also added to his GCSEs (seven A*s and two As) with As in AS modern Hebrew and religious studies.
“At the start of the year, I was getting Cs [in tests] for my AS levels, but I worked hard and got to grips with understanding the material,” Jonathan said.
“The AS exams were a week before GCSEs so I had to sacrifice some revision time.” He wants to go into television and film writing and English literature and critical thinking will be among his AS topics.
Other JFS success stories were Adam Wald and Dylan Behr (10 A*s, one A), Gina Josephs, Jemma Barash and Rebecca Moss (10 A*s) and Nivi Kanel (nine A*s, two As).
Among the top students at Immanuel College, Bushey, were Yoel Gordon (10 A*s, one B), George Fattal (eight A*s, three As, one B), Sara Peskin (eight A*s, two As), Maya Lipman (seven A*s, one A, one B), Daniel Moses (seven A*s, three As, one B), Emily Braun (seven A*s, four As) and Tate Edwards (six A*s, four As).
Eighty-two per cent of Hasmonean students gained five A*-C grades including English and maths.
GCSE pupil David Rees also earned an A grade in A-level biblical Hebrew. Eight other students who took AS biblical Hebrew or modern Hebrew a year early also achieved an A.
Rafael Dembovsky achieved 12 A*s and one A, Aron Coten, Adina van Messel and Yehuda Nevies attained 12 A*s, Adina Lovat had 11 A*s and Yvette Jaffe 10 A*s and two As.
At King Solomon High in Redbridge, headteacher Spencer Lewis reported that “at least 10 pupils had a clean sweep of A* and A grades” and 85 per cent of students had achieved five A*-Cs. Top results included Samuel Howard (10 A*s, one A), Rebecca Zack (six A*s, six As), Sarah Cohen (six A*s, five As), Jagriti Jyoti (six A*s, three As), Lolita Gendler (five A*s, seven As) and Luke Vatkovsky (four A*s, five As).
