GCSE RESULTS: From Uganda to Oxford – and Covid in between

Matthew with his GCSE results at Greyfriars school – formerly St Gregory the Great Picture: ED NIX

Few students picking up their GCSE results on Thursday could claim that their journey to the secondary school exams had taken them through three schools and two continents.

But that is exactly path-less-trodden that Matthew Mawejje had to walk.

The 16-year-old pupil at St Gregory the Great beamed as he picked up better-than-expected results at the Cowley school.

He told the Oxford Mail he had returned to the UK from Uganda in June last year, starting at the Oxford secondary school a fortnight after he landed from Africa.

Matthew had been out of the England schools system from 2015.

And studying in Uganda had brought its own difficulties, describing his years in schools there as a ‘little bit complicated’.

He had a taste of a non-English curriculum, before moving to a school that taught the international GCSE syllabus.

“Covid happened in March 2020 and I didn’t go to school whatsoever for six months,” the teenager said.

He revised at home – off his own back – so it was ‘smoother than expected’ when he returned to school to start Year 10 in the autumn of 2020.

Returning to school in England ‘felt familiar’. He said: “I felt I wasn’t struggling.”

He outdid himself on Thursday with grade sixes in biology and physics. He will go on to study the sciences at A-level.

Asked what he wanted to go on to do in the future, Matthew said: “I’m not too sure. I just want to have those A-levels under my belt.”

This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire’s court and crime reporter.

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward