Best Schools - Celebrations as independent student with cerebral palsy is off to Oxford

Emily Manock, 18, was initially unsure whether Oxbridge was the place for her. She didn’t think she would make the grades and wondered whether having cerebral palsy would affect her chances. That was until she went on a school trip to Oxford University where she spotted a student who had the same disability she has.

“It was at that point that I began to set my sights on Oxford,” she said. “I just completely fell in love with the place and I knew it was where I wanted to go.”

Ms Manock, from Manchester, studied at Bolton School Girls’ Division and her A-level results were three A*s, an A and a B in politics, English literature, her EPQ (an independent research project) French and German. She has won a place at Jesus College, Oxford, to study French and German.

Record number of GCSE appeals expected, amid concern about marking reliability

A record number of GCSE appeals are anticipated this year, as the one to nine grading system is introduced across all major subjects for the first time.

The number of appeals has shot up since the new GCSEs started being phasing in, increasing by 320 per cent over the past two years from 114 in 2016 to 479 last year.

A former chief examiner has warned that another “significant” rise in requests for remarks this year is likely, adding that “we should have seen this coming”.

Students picking up their results on Thursday are the first group to take the reformed courses in virtually all subjects.