Celebrating the Extraordinary Success of a Transformational Bursary Award Holder (Class of ’24)
We are thrilled to celebrate the A level success of one of our transformational bursary award holders (3 A Levels; Maths, Physics and Computer Science, all grade A). She kindly shared her powerful story with us below.
My parents are Kurdish refugees, and they experienced the attempted genocide by Saddam Hussein. They managed to get over to Norway; got status, got passports and then we were born. I am the fifth girl out of a family of six, five girls and one boy. My father wanted to go to university to study and my mother to be a doctor but they never got the chance.
Both my parents were driven about education, and this is something they have always honed into us – if you don’t get yourself educated there is no way you can escape poverty. Education is your way out. Because they had refugee status they didn’t have money, they didn’t have education as children because it had been refused. My Dad said ’there are a lot of us and I want you guys to do well; I want a better education for you and there seems to be better opportunities in London; there is also a bigger Kurdish community here so it will be better for you kids.’
During our time in London, yes, there were job prospects for my father, but unfortunately they were limited. He became a taxi driver, the same job he had had in Norway. I remember my Dad just working, day-in, day-out, all hours. As for hobbies, there weren’t any. Opportunities are very limited when you are poor. Even with things like knitting I’d have to buy the yarn; with six mouths to feed, we couldn’t afford that kind of stuff. I remember I had an interest in gymnastics; I went to the leisure centre and found out that it was £20 for a child on benefits to join, but I knew then that that meant £20 less of food, electricity or heating so never went. Reading was the only free thing we could do and when we moved to Hayes I lived in Hillingdon library.
My first primary school was really bad, I didn’t learn fractions till Year 6 – obviously my parents don’t know Maths like that. I only had limited knowledge of my times tables, and the school didn’t feel very accepting of Muslims. Then I moved to a much better primary school and I could see my Maths getting better, but I could see I was still far behind. At that time I knew a better education at a grammar or private school was out of reach as at my current education level there was no way I could do the 11+.
Then I go into secondary school. My secondary school years were rough as we were often made homeless. We’d get letters saying we were being evicted. Me and my sisters would deal with them because my parents’ English isn’t good. I remember coming back during my GCSEs and my father telling me to pack as we were moving into a hostel. Most of my siblings were at university at that point so it was just me and the sister just above to rely on.
I thought the only way I can ever get myself into a better prospect is if I study harder. Covid affected us a lot – I didn’t have a Maths teacher from Year 9 into Year 10, only a series of online substitute teachers. I thought if I rely on the school I probably won’t be able to get into university. I would isolate myself; I’d work before school and stay after school to work in the library and I would practise, and study, and study.
Then my sister said your grades are good enough to get into a private school and I think your education would be better. The idea of going to private school was to me like – wow! – something you read about in books! She noticed this one and said it was quite close to our house. I thought, if they do any entrance exams, I won’t get in; I obviously couldn’t get any tutoring. Then I do the entrance exams and I get in!! I think this is great – my life is going to change; I won’t need to study so hard, but then I come here and because I come to this school so late I go to being a small fish in a very big pond. It was hard to adjust; it seemed like the girls here knew everything already. However I went into my Maths class and they said I should also do Further Maths. It was incredible the way they taught Maths: when I had taught myself I had to bash my head into a wall to understand it; here, if I didn’t get it I’d stay after school, and, because the class sizes are so small, I’d have the opportunity to ask; back in my old school, we had 35 students to one teacher. Mrs Drummond and the Maths department were amazing. Physics was amazing too. It was difficult but it answered a lot of questions. Though I still find Computer Science difficult, despite going onto read AI at university, the Maths really helped. It was a bit of a shock to the system socially too. When someone first meets you they ask what your hobby is, for me I couldn’t have said reading as I had stopped reading to focus on my education or what jobs do you want to go into, I didn’t care, I just wanted to make money, like, I just wanted to be out of a bad situation. So there was not much I could talk to the other girls about so the first couple of months were really tricky.
But then I found my feet and my friends. The girls here aren’t unfriendly, it just takes a while to work out what you can and can’t say; once you work out how to fit yourself into their world it makes it much better. I remember the first time I heard of DoE, I was confused. What? You guys camp? Willingly?! I have been forced out of my house; can this be optional?! But later on you find the right group and you become less self-conscious.
My two years here had so many highs. The school paid for me to go to Switzerland – I had never been on a plane – we went to Cerne, the world-renowned centre for particle physics – it was amazing! I was so happy my bursary also included the option to take up a musical instrument. I took up the cello – I thought I was living the dream! When you are poor there are things you dream about, like football, like music, which you just can’t do.
You also don’t feel you can pick a career you like; you just want to make sure you won’t be in the same situation as you were when you were young, for you or your children, so the careers guidance here was really helpful. The Parents’ Guild came in to talk about their careers and it was their confidence that struck me so deeply. I’d never seen parents talk about their careers. It was a great opportunity for me to watch and learn. I thought if I can adopt their attitude, I know it is going to go well for me. Even if they aren’t from the same background as me I can see their mentality and if I have their mentality I am sure I can get to where I want to be.
To those who gave to the Bursary fund, thank you so much. You took me from a horrible place and you literally gave me a place to study when I had none and an amazing foundation to continue my study at university and beyond.
If you would like to enable more young women to benefit from our transformational education please visit: https://www.gdst.net/donate/NHEHS