Zhenzhen is 'top state pupil in country'

8:55am Friday 15th August 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

ZHENZHEN Ma was celebrating yesterday after being just one mark away from securing eight A grades at A-Level.

The Didcot teenager, from Fleet Meadow, is among the very highest scoring pupils in the country - and yesterday the Department for Children, Schools and Families said they did not know of any state school pupils with better results.

Yesterday Zhenzhen, an 18-year-old pupil at Didcot Sixth Form and a former pupil of Didcot Girls School and Greenmere Primary School, said: "I am very happy.

"I thought I would do well, and I like all my subjects, but I was worried about English because it was a bit tougher."

Zhenzhen scored top grades in chemistry, maths, further maths, music, English and physics - and missed out on an eighth A in critical thinking by just one point. They are added to her A grade last year in Chinese.

She said: "I'm quite calm about the results, I'm not one of those people who jumps around a lot, but I'm calmly happy and I think my Mum is quite pleased."

Joint sixth form headteacher Chris Bryan said it would be fantastic if Zhenzhen was the top state school student in the country and added: "She is the best student that we have ever had in Didcot Sixth Form and we are so, so proud of her."

Zhenzhen will be studying natural science at Christ's College, Cambridge.

At Abingdon School, students and staff were also celebrating a bumper crop of results - with one of their number, Howard Loh, landing seven A grades in maths, further maths, accounting, economics, physics, chemistry and Chinese, along with a chemistry result which was in the country's top 10.

Howard, 19, spoke from Hong Kong, where he was spending the holiday with his family.

He said: "I was very excited when the school called, it was fantastic news. I didn't really think I would get seven As, but I did and I feel really good about it.

"I worked really hard but I also do a lot of sport and music at school, so there is a kind of balance.

"I feel really proud of myself but it is also thanks to all the support I have had from my parents and teachers."

He will be going on to study maths at Cambridge University.

Overall in Oxfordshire, A to E pass grades were set to be up on last year at almost 98 per cent of entries and nearly half of pupils - 48 per cent - achieved As or Bs.

Nationally, grades went up again, with the percentage scoring A to Es rising from 96.9 per cent to 97.2 per cent.

There was also an increase in the number of candidates getting As, up from 25.3 per cent to 25.9 per cent.