Exam results are A-mazing
SCHOOLS are celebrating what has been called significant improvements in the number of students achieving A* and A grades at A-level across Bridgend county.
Pictured is Porthcawl Comprehensive pupil Megan Fish who was overjoyed with her grades.
NINETEEN-YEAR- OLD Harriet Rees says she is ‘living proof’ that persistence pays off.
Having received two Bs and a C grade in her A-levels last year, she fell short of the three A grades needed to study dentistry in Bristol.
And, while she could have taken another course at Bristol University, Harriet was determined she wouldn’t settle for second best.
“I didn’t want to go to university and do what I didn’t want to do,” she said. “So I decided to take an extra year and it paid off.”
While some of her friends headed off to start their new lives studying away from home, Harriet, from Porthcawl, returned to Porthcawl Comprehensive School.
And she juggled studying for her chemistry, biology and maths exams with working part-time as a receptionist at the town’s Portway Surgery.
“School came first, but it’s given me great experience before I go into dentistry,” she said.
As a “hands-on person,” Harriet has been attracted to the practicality of dentistry, particularly because it will put her firmly on the road to achieving her dream of becoming a maxillofacial or ‘maxfacs’ sur- geon. She said: “My mum’s a doctor and my sister is studying medicine as well.
“I want to be a maxfacs surgeon and do facial reconstruction. I just want to make a difference.”
Even though it’s a long road to her dream job – five years of dentistry and then a three-year medical course – Harriet can go forward with confidence knowing she can achieve whatever she sets her mind to.
And to those who may have been disappointed with their A-level grades as she was in 2015, she has this to say: “Don’t worry about rushing to any decision, you have to do what you have to do.
“An extra year in the whole scheme of things is nothing. You can do what you want to do. I am living proof.”