Isabel Burns from Charing near Ashford becomes Homewood School's first Oxbridge student in over a decade
17:25, 24 August 2020
updated: 20:04, 24 August 2020
A teen left in limbo by the A Level results debacle has found out she will be going to Cambridge University.
Isabel Burns, from Charing near Ashford , will be the first student to go from Tenterden 's Homewood School to an Oxbridge college in more than a decade.
She found out on Friday that Robinson College had accepted her to study English.
Teachers were confident she'd attain the A*AA conditional to her getting a place with both mock exam results and predicted grades that matched this.
The 17-year-old also got full marks for her English coursework and a high score in her Cambridge entrance exam.
Unfortunately Covid-19 eliminated the possibility of taking final tests to prove her ability, meaning she relied on the controversial grading system that has sparked outrage among students, educators and the general population.
An algorithm used a combination of teacher assessment and moderation which would attempt to ensure consistency across the system and protect against significant grade inflation.
The system left her with much lower grades than expected, picking up an ABB and being informed she'd not met the conditions for her first place university.
Speaking at the time, Ms Burns said: "I was totally devastated. All my work, the countless hours of study, and the time my teachers had given up to ensure I’d done everything possible to prepare, suddenly counted for nothing; and grade flexibility means little when your university is as intensely competitive as Cambridge.
"Bright students who attend state schools don’t need lower entry grades; we need our hard work acknowledged and that has been ignored by an anonymous algorithm which dictated that, based on my schools’ overall past results, I couldn’t possibly be good enough to achieve the top A-level grades. That’s a disgrace.”
Upon hearing she'd got the place, she said: "It's been such a dream on the horizon for so long, and I'm just so grateful for the support of everyone who has helped make it possible."
Homewood Principal Jeremy Single said: "Isabel couldn't have worked harder from the moment she decided that Cambridge was where she wanted to go.
"She saw no barriers to making that dream come true and nor did we as the Government’s promise has been to encourage more students from a range of different backgrounds to access the top universities.
"Isabel proved herself at every stage - to herself and to her teachers - but the moderation methodology completely disregarded this effort and ability, and that of many of our other students.
“Whilst the Government’s approach in attempting to achieve a spread of results nationally in line with past statistics might have seemed a reasonable one, it resulted in many students being treated as mere figures on a spreadsheet and not therefore being awarded the grades they actually deserve as individuals."
“I am absolutely delighted that Isabel has been successful in securing her very well-deserved place to study English at Robinson College, Cambridge.
"After what has been a very difficult week for her, she has been rightly rewarded.
"This is a fantastic achievement for Isabel and her family, and a reflection of Isabel's ability, hard work and the superb education that she has received during her time at Homewood.
"I know that I speak for all of the staff at Homewood when I say that we are extremely proud of Isabel and that we wish her the very best of luck for her exciting future."
