THOUSANDS of students across York, North and East Yorkshire are all set to collect their A-level exam results tomorrow.

This year’s summer exams were cancelled amid Covid-19 and for the first time, teachers and lecturers were told to submit the grades they thought each student would have received if they had sat the papers. Exam boards have moderated these grades to ensure this year’s results are not significantly higher than previous years.

In the city York College is celebrating the hard work and resilience of hundreds of students awaiting their results. Among them is A-level humanities student, Yasmin Walker, who, spurred on by the Black Lives Matter movement, has been successful in having an article published in Meridian, a new online student magazine.

Yasmin, 18, from Leeds, is currently studying politics, media and English literature at York College. Since starting her A-level studies she has enjoyed politics and writing essays, and realised that she has a passion for journalism.

She said: “The recent events with BLM and coronavirus made me do lots of research into it and I think the launch of the new student magazine, for me, made it seem like this was a chance for me to gain some experience. My friends were also a massive prompt and boosted my confidence when it came to pitching an article as I was very nervous as I had never done something like this before.

“Studying during lockdown has been very challenging, but my tutors have made it as easy to follow as possible and they have let us all know they are here for support. During lockdown I’ve had lots of free time to read and educate myself on current affairs and I felt that The Meridian, and the article I wrote, was a good opportunity to consolidate what I had learnt and create a starting point for what I would love to do in the future. I would love to go to university and study politics and hopefully write more and more articles to build up my portfolio to eventually get a permanent job in political journalism.”

Adam Tomes, politics tutor, said: “It is fantastic to recognise the successes of our students, especially when they go beyond the curriculum, as Yasmin clearly has.”

Click here to read Yasmin's article.