A Bilborough College student who achieved top A-level grades is set to live the American dream after securing a scholarship at one of the world’s leading research universities.

Olivier Niyibizi has already flown out to start a new life at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and received his grades via email today.

He achieved an A in Maths, an A in Business Studies, a B in Computer Science and an A* in Extended Project.

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Students from Bilborough College achieved an impressive 99 per cent pass rate in this year’s A-Level results along with an increase in the proportion of A*-B grades.

A total of 52 per cent of grades were A*- B, a rise of two per cent from last year, and over 23% of students on an A Level study programme gained grades AAB or better. The overall pass rate has now exceeded 98 per cent for the 13^th consecutive year. A total of 671 students took A-Levels, including those taking two A-levels alongside a BTEC Diploma. A total of 623 students took three or more A-levels and 74 (or 12 per cent) of these gained three or more A and A* grades.

Chris Bradford, Principal at Bilborough College, congratulated students on their results.

He said: “Along with the rest of the staff team here at Bilborough I’m delighted that once again so many of our students have performed so well. This has to be one of the most important days of the year for us all – students, parents and staff alike. When everyone has worked so hard it’s great to see that effort and dedication rewarded with excellent results. Of course, as well a chance to offer congratulations today is also about confirming students’ next steps. We’re wishing all of them well for their exciting futures and offering expert advice to anyone who might want to change their plans either because they’ve done slightly better than they anticipated or in some cases not quite achieved their target grades.”

A Bilborough College student organised a flash mob to raise money for Cancer Research UK in honour of his mum who is currently undergoing chemotherapy.

Ben Allen, 17, arranged a surprise performance of Bruno Mars’ ‘Uptown Funk’ by various student musicians in the Refectory, during the Leavers’ Day celebrations.

Students collected donations in buckets and the £71.35 raised was donated to Cancer Research UK.

Ben, who is studying Biology, Geography, Psychology and EPQ at Bilborough College, was inspired to raise money for the charity after his mum, Cheryl, was diagnosed with cancer.

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A Bilborough College student has been selected from more than 1,000 applicants across the UK for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to find out more about universities in America.

Dayna Mooneegan is one of 150 students who have been awarded a place on the Sutton Trust US Programme 2017.

She had to satisfy strict criteria to qualify for the programme which included achieving eight A or A* grades at GCSE.

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Students at Bilborough College exercised their right to vote after hearing from four political party candidates during a mock election.

The event was organised in a bid to encourage the 606 students who are eligible to vote to register in time for the upcoming election.

Candidates from the Lib Dems, Conservatives, Labour and the Green Party each delivered a five-minute speech to students before taking questions.

Students then cast their votes using real ballot boxes and voting booths and the overall winner was the Labour Party with 72 per cent of the votes. The Conservatives secured 13 per cent of the vote, the Green Party eight per cent and the Lib Dems seven per cent.

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An ex-student returned to Bilborough College talk about her life-changing trip to Honduras teaching underprivileged youngsters in schools and orphanages.

Jessica Riley-Heenan spent a year in Honduras with Project Trust, the oldest educational charity specialising in overseas volunteering placements for school leavers.

As a result of her time in the Central American country, Jessica is now studying a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) course at Nottingham Trent University as she wants to teach English abroad.

She recently came back to Bilborough College to talk to current students about how the trip had changed her life.

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Welcome to Issue 5 of the Bilborough Buzz college magazine.

This issue includes the Media and Film Studies trip to the Harry Potter Studios, French exchange to Bordeaux, our mock election, Art and Photography department’s end of year exhibition, Pretty Muddy for Cancer Research and Year 13 end of year information.

New figures show that on average ex-Bilborough College students achieve higher classes of degrees than their counterparts from state, independent schools and other sixth form colleges across the UK.

A total of 84.93 per cent of students from Bilborough College achieved a first or upper second class honours degree at university in the 2015/16 academic year.

This compares to 76.12 per cent from sixth form colleges, 73.62 per cent from state schools and 79.52 per cent from independent schools across the country.

The figures have been released by the Sixth Form Colleges Association for the 2015/16 academic year using information supplied by its 90 members and data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

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