Latest news with #modernlanguages
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Grieving Newcastle teen gets into Oxford after pledge to mother
A sixth-form student has fulfilled a promise made to her mother before she died by securing a place at Oxford Morgan, a pupil at Newcastle's Dame Allan School, said she felt her mother would be "celebrating" after she got A* grades in A-levels for English Literature, Spanish and 18-year-old, whose mother Faustina died of lung cancer in April last year, will take her place at the university to study modern languages in said her mother would be proud of her and had made her promise to "push" herself as hard as she could to succeed. Last year, her sister Francesca achieved A* grades in her exams and secured a place at Cambridge to study natural sisters were both home-schooled by their mother, who was from Malaysia, before joining Dame Allan, an independent school. Miss Morgan said: "My mum was incredible, strong, organised, inspiring and a person of great faith."She supported every interest we had, helped us through our GCSEs and pushed us to work hard."She made me promise to keep working hard on my Oxford application no matter what happened."I could practically hear her celebrating with me when the offer came through."Miss Morgan, who speaks English and Mandarin, said she had been passionate about languages and storytelling from a young age and hoped to become an author."The literary world has always been central to my life," she said."Tolkien is my favourite author - he studied and taught at Oxford and wrote the books that shaped my love of reading. That's why I decided to apply there." Molly Naas, a pupil at New College Durham in Framwellgate Moor, is also grieving her mother. She said achieving a merit in an Early Years in Education T-level was a "dream come true" and she hopes to be a teacher. The 18-year-old from Sherburn, in County Durham, said: "I've managed to pull it out of the bag, I lost my mam earlier in the year and our dream was for me to finish the course. "So I managed to keep going for her and make our dream come true."I've always enjoyed looking after kids, I've always done babysitting. They are all different and hilarious and there's never a dull moment." Alison Maynard, deputy principal at the college, said all students had got into their first choice for university, as well as landing "fantastic apprenticeships" with some "amazing companies". She said: "As you can see by the grin on my face the students have done absolutely amazingly."Some of our students have beaten off 1,400 applications to gain fantastic apprenticeships. "It's not just about A Levels, they are fantastic, but the T Level students have done equally as well." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
A-level student fulfils promise to dying mother by securing place at Oxford
A sixth-form student has fulfilled a promise made to her mother before she died, months into her A-level studies, by securing a place at Oxford. Gabrielle Morgan, 18, said she 'could practically hear (her mother) celebrating' with her when her offer came through to study modern languages at the University of Oxford. Gabrielle, from Newcastle, secured her place after achieving straight A* grades in English literature, Spanish and chemistry, along with an A* in an extended project qualification (EPQ), and will go on to study Spanish and beginners' Portuguese. It comes a year after her sister Francesca achieved straight A* grades and secured a place at Cambridge to study natural sciences. The sisters were both home-schooled by their mother, Faustina, before joining Dame Allan's Schools. Ms Morgan, who moved from Malaysia to the UK in her early 20s, died from lung cancer in April last year. Gabrielle said: 'My mum was incredible, strong, organised, inspiring and a person of great faith. 'She supported every interest we had, helped us through our GCSEs and pushed us to work hard. 'She made me promise to keep working hard on my Oxford application no matter what happened. 'I could practically hear her celebrating with me when the offer came through. 'I know just how proud of me she is and I know she helped a lot, even though she wasn't here physically.' Gabrielle's promise to Ms Morgan carried her through an emotionally turbulent year – including a school trip to Valencia, during which she boarded a high-speed train to Madrid with director of sixth form Karen Fletcher to sit her Oxford admissions test. Gabrielle, who is bilingual in English and Mandarin, said she has been passionate about languages and storytelling from a young age, and dreams of becoming an author. 'The literary world has always been central to my life,' she said. 'Tolkien is my favourite author – he studied and taught at Oxford and wrote the books that shaped my love of reading. That's why I decided to apply there.' Gabrielle said her standout moments at Dame Allan's, an independent school in Fenham, Newcastle, include performing Visiting Hours and Supermarket Flowers by Ed Sheeran at school concerts in memory of her mother. 'She loved hearing me sing, so it felt special to sing for her in front of others,' she said. 'Those songs encapsulate what grief feels like.'
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
A-level student fulfils promise to dying mother by securing place at Oxford
A sixth-form student has fulfilled a promise made to her mother before she died, months into her A-level studies, by securing a place at Oxford. Gabrielle Morgan, 18, said she 'could practically hear (her mother) celebrating' with her when her offer came through to study modern languages at the University of Oxford. Gabrielle, from Newcastle, secured her place after achieving straight A* grades in English literature, Spanish and chemistry, along with an A* in an extended project qualification (EPQ), and will go on to study Spanish and beginners' Portuguese. It comes a year after her sister Francesca achieved straight A* grades and secured a place at Cambridge to study natural sciences. The sisters were both home-schooled by their mother, Faustina, before joining Dame Allan's Schools. Ms Morgan, who moved from Malaysia to the UK in her early 20s, died from lung cancer in April last year. Gabrielle said: 'My mum was incredible, strong, organised, inspiring and a person of great faith. 'She supported every interest we had, helped us through our GCSEs and pushed us to work hard. 'She made me promise to keep working hard on my Oxford application no matter what happened. 'I could practically hear her celebrating with me when the offer came through. 'I know just how proud of me she is and I know she helped a lot, even though she wasn't here physically.' Gabrielle's promise to Ms Morgan carried her through an emotionally turbulent year – including a school trip to Valencia, during which she boarded a high-speed train to Madrid with director of sixth form Karen Fletcher to sit her Oxford admissions test. Gabrielle, who is bilingual in English and Mandarin, said she has been passionate about languages and storytelling from a young age, and dreams of becoming an author. 'The literary world has always been central to my life,' she said. ' Tolkien is my favourite author – he studied and taught at Oxford and wrote the books that shaped my love of reading. That's why I decided to apply there.' Gabrielle said her standout moments at Dame Allan's, an independent school in Fenham, Newcastle, include performing Visiting Hours and Supermarket Flowers by Ed Sheeran at school concerts in memory of her mother. 'She loved hearing me sing, so it felt special to sing for her in front of others,' she said. 'Those songs encapsulate what grief feels like.'
BBC News
13-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
University of Aberdeen's plans to cut modern language degrees were 'rushed'
The University of Aberdeen's plans to scrap modern languages degrees were "hurried", a review has institution blamed a steep fall in the number of students studying modern languages when it initially said the courses could be scrapped in later said it would continue to offer joint honour degree programmes, but not single honours programmes.A review into how the situation has been handled, commissioned by the university, found decision-making was unstructured and dominated by finances. The university said it accepted there had been "missteps". The university had also cited high staff numbers relative to students as a reason for the proposals, which emerged in November 2023, sparked anger among both students and Gaelic, German and Spanish degrees were at the heart of the than 13,000 people signed a petition opposing the cuts, and protests were university then said the views of staff and students had been listened to and then confirmed it would continue to offer joint honour degree programmes. The review of how the situation was handled was carried out by Prof Greg Gordon, head of the university's School of concluded decision-making was "hurried, unstructured, and dominated by immediate financial considerations".Broader considerations - including impacts on staff and students - and the risk of reputational damage were said to have not been given adequate weight in the were described as "at times firm and apparently lacking in empathy". Prof Gordon said that after "careful consideration" of all the information, he found several areas within the process which could have been improved on. 'Swift action' Recommendations included that more time should be taken over similar decisions in future, and that staff and students should be more involved in the added that the fact the institution was ultimately willing to recognise issues was a positive feature which deserved university said in a statement: "The review was commissioned to help us identify areas for improvement and meet best practice."We fully accept that there were some missteps during the early stage of the change management process in late 2023 and we took swift action to address this." The statement added that the senior management team welcomed the outcome of the review, and fully accepted the recommendations.
