Magdalena Staicu

Magdalena Staicu arrived from Italy with only basic knowledge of English and started her time at college by attending lessons in GCSE English and Maths. Once she had completed these, with high grades, she enrolled for A Levels in Spanish, History, Maths, Government & Politics and the EPQ. She sat her Spanish A Level early, achieving an A* grade (with a 96% mark in her mock) and, after completing the second year of her other A Levels, she hopes to go on to study Law at a Russell Group university.

She said: “Although I achieved an 8 in Maths GCSE and a 5 in English, after studying the subjects for just six months, it was really hard for me to understand the English accent and to be able to express myself to the fullest. So when I started my A Levels last year I relied on the English dictionary to understand what was written in the text books! It was a little frustrating but then during lockdown, I became very independent and determined not to let it affect my studies.”

As well as her academic studies at college, Magdalena has been focusing on her Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, preparing for the expeditions, as well as volunteering and completing the physical and skills sections of the award with support from the sixth form staff.