DEPUTY head girl Aman Sadiq leaves Burnt Mill Academy with skills for life – and a bumper crop of top GCSEs.

The 16-year-old, from Harlow, picked up eight Grade 9 and one Grade 8 after the summer’s exams at Burnt Mill Academy, in Harlow.

She is hoping to go onto sixth form to study maths, further maths, physics and economics, with ambitions of a career in maths or economics.

As a member of the student leadership team, she took part in The Diana Award Anti-Bullying Programme.

She said: “Being deputy head girl was really good. I felt I helped the school by working on several projects. One of them was the anti-bullying training I received. That was important as I feel bullying is a prevalent issue in society, so I felt I could really make a difference. They are life skills I can carry on with me into the future.

“I am really happy about my results. They are even more than what I had hoped for. I was feeling mixed emotions this morning; nervous but excited to find out what I had achieved. It was very satisfying to see the outcome.

“We had after school sessions and extra study sessions with our teachers there if we needed them. That was definitely a big help.”

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A diagnosis of dyspraxia four years ago did not hold back Kelechi Nwandu who collected top grades in his GCSEs.

The 16-year-old, from Harlow, achieved one Grade 9, two Grade 8, one Grade 7, two grade 6 and one Grade 5 in the summer’s exams at Burnt Mill Academy.

He was diagnosed with the co-ordination disorder when it was noticed his handwriting was poor and his processing speeds needed developing.

With the support of the school’s SEND department, he achieved a top set of results.

He said: “The school helped me by allowing me to use a laptop for my work and tests. My handwriting is very bad, so I have to type for the examiners to be able to read my work. I was given extra time during the exams to accommodate for my slow processing speeds.

“I would have had much lower grades without this help as I would not have had enough time to finish and examiners would not have been able to read my writing.

“I feel very thankful to the school for that. It is a great school. I felt very happy getting my results.”

Kelechi will now go on to study computer science, maths and science at sixth form.