29-year-old woman gets GCSEs after failing them at school

Lizzie Foulds, a part-time GCSE student at Active Learning’s Banbury and Bicester College in Broughton Road, Banbury picked her results up today (August 25).

Ms Foulds received a grade 6 in English language, grade 4 in maths and a merit in English language (spoken). 

READ MORE: Bicester: Schoolboy stuns with straight 9 grades in his GCSE results

She said: “I can honestly say I am over the moon with my results!. When I left school years ago, I wasn’t fazed that I had failed my GCSEs but now, as an adult, I have realised how important it is in order to move on to bigger and better things. 

“Without the support of the tutors and the brilliant atmosphere at the college I wouldn’t have been able to do it.  

“Now, at nearly 30 years old, I have my GCSEs and I am prouder than I could ever have imagined.”  

Active Learning's Bicester and Banbury College

Across the college, 95 per cent of pupils taking full-time GCSE programmes or standalone maths and English GCSEs achieved a pass in this year’s exams.  

Many of the college’s GCSE students are learners who resit maths, English or both, to continue in education or progress their career.  

This includes mature students who need these GCSEs to progress in the workplace, learners who may have missed the chance to go to university and want to study at degree level, alongside part-time students who have studied GCSEs at evening classes. 

Cheri Ashby, deputy chief executive of Activate Learning, said: “GCSE results day is such a special time for us at Activate Learning, as often we see our students overcoming the barriers they have encountered in their studies previously, to improve their grades and succeed where perhaps they thought they would not. 

Active Learning's Bicester and Banbury College (Image: Banbury and Bicester College)

“Once again, this year I am delighted to see so many students improving on what they have previously achieved, and to do so in the first public exams for two years – and for many of them their first since they were in Year 6 – is a real achievement.

“I’d also like to take a moment to celebrate our older students who may have returned to education to get their mathematics and English GCSEs to advance their careers.

"I’ve heard some amazing stories about some of our mature students and I really want to shine a spotlight on their achievements, especially given the demands many of them faced in terms of juggling family commitments, busy home schedules and coming into college. 

-

Read more from this author

This story was written by Sophie Perry. She joined the team in 2021 as a digital reporter.

You can get in touch with her by emailing: sophie.perry@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @itssophieperry

A message from our Editor

Thank you for reading this story and supporting the Oxford Mail.

If you like what we do please consider getting a subscription for the Oxford Mail and in return we’ll give you unrestricted access with less adverts across our website from the latest news, investigations, features, and sport.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok for more. 

You can also join the conversation in our Facebook groups: stay ahead of traffic alerts here, keep up to date with the latest from court here, share your favourite memories of Oxford here, get your daily dose of celebrity news here and take some time out with news that will make you smile. 

If you’ve got a story for our reporters, send us your news here. You can also list an event for free here.