Grenfell girl scores A in exam hours after blaze
A TEENAGER who sat her GCSE chemistry exam the morning after she escaped from the Grenfell Tower fire was yesterday awarded an A grade in the subject.
Ines Alves, who lived with her family on the 13th floor, fled the burning building in the middle of the night with just her phone and chemistry notes, before sitting the 9am exam in the same clothes she escaped in.
Ines, 16, also gained a grade 9 in maths – the highest possible – and an A* in Spanish.
Speaking at Sacred Heart High School, in Hammersmith, west London, after opening her results, she said: “There was no point me carrying on watching the building burning so I just went in. That’s all I had on my mind.”
Another brave student defied the odds after scoring top marks despite undergoing life-saving brain surgery just two weeks before her exams.
Sophie Parkinson was awarded top grades across all subjects, including a grade 9 in her two English tests.
The 16-year-old of Twickenham, south-west London, was told she could delay her exams for six months after doctors operated on a ruptured aneurysm.
But the Waldegrave School pupil said: “I was not going to let what happened stand in the way of my future and my ambitions.”
Deaf teenager Jessica Oliver gained eight A*s, and said her results showed deaf children could overcome the “stereotype” of underachieving.
Jessica, from Hove, East Sussex, said: “I had to work to catch up with everyone else but I think I got there.”
Six-year-old Alexsha Monforte, from London, was this year’s youngest success, earning a pass in maths.
She got a grade 5 after studying in an Excellence in Education programme.