A 42-year-old mum-of-two was overjoyed to collect her GCSE results today on the way to pursuing her dream of becoming a midwife.
Zoe Sewell said she “fluffed” her GCSEs first time round, but after having two kids and working in a nursery she decided to do something for herself and go back to school.
On Thursday (August 12), the hard work paid off as she collected GCSEs in English and maths from Hugh Baird College in Bootle.
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She said: “It’s taken a long time to get here, to do this. I’m 42, I’ve been to school, I’ve had my kids and decided to do something for myself.”
Despite the pandemic, Zoe said she’d loved everything about her time at Hugh Baird and praised the college’s tutors for their efforts during lockdown.
She said: “I’ve had tears and stuff while I was doing maths, and they’ve been absolutely amazing.”
With her new qualifications, Zoe will now be going to City of Liverpool College to do an access to healthcare course and hopes to then be able to do a degree and qualify as a midwife.
She said: “When I was in school, I met my partner when I was 16 and completely fluffed my GCSEs. I trained to be a nursery nurse and then worked in a nursery and a school.”
She added: “I’ve always wanted to be a midwife, it’s always been my dream job. I thought I’d really like to go and do that and make a difference.
“I’ve got an 18-year-old and a 13-year-old and they’re pretty independent so I want to do something for myself.
“It’s just one step closer to what I want to do.”
Like A-levels on Tuesday, Thursday’s GCSE results saw record numbers of students achieve passes after exams were scrapped due to the pandemic.
Nationally, 28.9% of pupils received grades above a 7, equivalent to an A grade, and more than 75% scored passing grades of 4 or above.
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