Bury St Edmunds GCSE results: St Benedict's Catholic School
Pupils at St Benedict’s Catholic School in Bury St Edmunds have picked up their GCSE results with their proud parents watching on.
Among those collecting their results was Eva Torfinn, who achieved a grade 8, seven grade 7s and two grade 6s, despite suffering from appendicitis while taking one of her exams.
Eva, of Bury, was up the whole night before her physics exam, experiencing severe stomach pain.
The teenager even walked around her garden at 4am trying to make herself feel better.
She said: “The night before, I wasn’t feeling well, but I went and did the exam anyway.”
Eva’s mum, Emma Torfinn, said when she picked her up from the exam, her daughter looked grey, so she immediately took her to the doctors.
The GP sent Eva straight to the hospital’s surgical ward and she then underwent an emergency appendectomy.
Despite the pain she was in, Eva tried to persuade her surgeon to postpone the operation until after her English exam the next day appendectomy
Just one week later, Eva was back in the exam hall.
She said: “I was very calm, I revised so much and I tried my best and knew I couldn’t have done any better with the circumstances.
Collecting her results, Eva said she felt ‘very relieved and happy’ - she managed to achieve a grade 6 in physics and is fully recovered.
Emma said she felt ‘incredibly proud’ of her daughter and the strength and commitment she showed while taking her exams.
Headteacher Imogen Senior said Year 11 pupils at the school had achieved a ‘really strong set of results’.
Mrs Senior said she was able to see results day ‘from the other side’ as her son Finnian was among the cohort of GCSE students at the school.
As headteacher, she knew how Finnian, 16, had got on the night before and stayed at her dad’s house, so she wouldn’t give anything away.
The mum-of-three, who also has a niece in Year 11, said: “It has been really interesting being on the other side and quite an unusual experience.
“I am really proud of him.”
Finnian achieved three grade 8s, three grade 7s, four grade 6s and two grade 5s.
When asked how it was to have his mum as his headteacher, he said: “It feels normal as she has been my mum and my headteacher the whole time.”
A total of 153 students at the school took GCSE exams, with 52 per cent achieving English and maths at grade 5 and above and 75 per cent achieving grade 4 and above.
Mrs Senior said: “Attainment never tells the whole story and there is so much more to their achievements than grades alone show and we are delighted by the successes for students across the board.
“This cohort of students started in Year 7 at the height of the pandemic, missed their SATS and had key moments shaped in their education by that strange starting point.”
She added: “The progress of these students at St Benedict’s, though hard to quantify in numerical terms is impressive and they finish this phase of their education with not only excellent results but also as kind, ambitious, thoughtful young people with a wonderful sense of community.”