City of Westminster College students Ashera Goonewardene, Destiny Kenneally and Anisha Palakadan were celebrating results that take them one step closer to their goals.
All three students were born outside the UK and have become firm friends as well as classmates – helping each other out with the subjects they found most difficult. Thanks to hard work and camaraderie, all three have achieved the science GCSEs they need to go on and study for their A Levels at the College.
Ashera Goonewardene, 17, from Kensington & Chelsea was born in the US and came to the UK when she was three. She was home educated and took her first three GCSEs at another college at 15. After that she enrolled on AS Level but didn’t do very well and wasn’t accepted for A2 Level. So she decided to try again at City of Westminster College and now has six GCSEs – including the passes she needs to study A Levels.
Ashera says: “I’m very happy with these results. I love biology and physics and want to study astrophysics or marine biology at university – I’m keeping my options open! The College has brilliant teachers who understand both us students and their subjects.”
Destiny Kenneally, 17, from Brent was born in Nigeria and, after primary school in the UK, went back to Africa for secondary education, returning to London in 2008 for her GCSEs. Now she has six under her belt – including the sciences she needs for her ultimate goal of a career in medicine.
Destiny says: “I’m really pleased and I’m staying on to do A Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Physics. There’s no way to pass GCSEs unless you study hard, and I’d recommend the College for its good teachers.”
Anisha Palakadan, 19, from Harrow was born in India and spent her childhood there. She came to the UK in 2007 to take an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) course before enrolling on the GCSE course last year. Now she has five GCSEs – a great achievement as this is her first experience of the UK education system.
Anisha says: “I really like the College and found our group work so useful - Destiny and Ashera helped me with my English and I helped them with their Maths and Chemistry! Now “I’m going on to study A Levels and hope to go to university in England to study engineering.”