Ukrainian boy who made home in Derby celebrates GCSE success, gives heartfelt thanks for school's warm welcome
Rodion Zaburmekha achieves excellent GCSE results at Derby's Murray Park school, excelling in Statistics and Maths.
A Ukraine born student who made Derby a home is celebrating excellent GCSE Results Day success.
Rodion Zaburmekha, who moved to Derby from Ukraine three years ago, has impressed Murray Park school with his grades and determination to learn and thrive.
Despite the challenge of uprooting and relocating to England, he has achieved a list of excellent results, including grade 9s in Statistics and Maths.
He said: "Coming today to collect these grades I felt a mix of nerves and excitement.
“It has been challenging adapting to not only a new country but a new school, but I can’t thank Murray Park enough for how welcoming they have been.
"I will be going to Nottingham College to study Economics, Computer Science and Maths, with the aim of one day working in Cyber Security."
His mum, Nataliia Zaburmekha, added: "I am so proud of everything Rodion has achieved.
“He has worked so hard and these results reflect that.
“I can’t thank Murray Park enough for how closely they have supported him and helped him to settle in.
“He didn’t even speak much English when he first came here, so to have achieved this is amazing."
Murray Park school recorded a pleasing set of results.
66% of students achieved a grade 4 or above in English and 63.7% in Maths.
On average, students have achieved a grade 4 across their subjects, opening doors to further study, apprenticeships and exciting new opportunities.
Mrs Caley, headteacher said: 'We are immensely proud of our students, with another year of fantastic results.
“Our staff worked tremendously hard to ensure that all students were well prepared for their exams and we look forward to supporting them to secure their Post 16 courses and jobs.”
Another student who is celebrating success is Gabriella Tilley.
She scored an outstanding 300/300 UMS in Health and Social Care, alongside a number of other fantastic grades.
She will now be going on to study Performing Arts at KTC College in Nottingham.
She said: "It has been really stressful leading up to my exams, but I continued to put a lot of hard work into it and I am so pleased it was all worth it with these amazing results.
"The final year has really stood out as memorable at Murray Park and prom was particularly memorable."
This year’s Head Girl, Kalpriya Dani, was overjoyed as she opened her results.
Kalpriya is off to Joseph Wright College to study Psychology, Criminology and English, with the goal of one day working in law.
She said: "I am so, so proud of myself. I got the envelope with the grades in but I couldn’t open it at first.
"I could not believe it when I finally did and saw that I had not only passed everything but also achieved some really good grades that I am proud of, such as 7 in English Language.
"I have been working so hard towards this for the past two years but it has all paid off.
“I can’t believe it, I’m off to Nando’s later with my family to celebrate."