A London student who was made homeless and lost her school work during a devastating fire on Christmas Eve has scored top grades in her A Levels.
Samira Hersi, from Hackney, was on Thursday celebrating an A in English Literature and Bs in Chemistry and DT which mean she has won a place to read Law at Warwick University.
The Excelsior Academy student said she faced significant challenges when all her course notes were destroyed in an electrical fire, which broke out at the family's ground floor flat.
Recalling the terrifying ordeal she said focusing on her studies helped her through months of living in temporary accommodation.
She said: "I lost everything and while I am obviously so happy we are all safe it was really hard.
“We were rehoused in March and before that moved every two weeks."
The aspiring lawyer, who has three brothers aged 10, 19 and 21, was at home with her mum when the blaze broke out.
She said: "I went to the bathroom and smelled smoke. I opened my brother's room and there was a fire.
“There was smoke everywhere and we had to get out. Luckily our flat was on the ground floor."
The school rallied around to provide essential reading materials and resources, Samira said.
She added: "I relied on my resources a lot, especially for English literature and the school was very helpful."
Pupils across the capital were celebrating their record breaking results as the proportion of A-level entries awarded top grades rose across the country compared to last year and remains above pre-pandemic levels.
London overtook the South East as the best performing region in the country for A-Level results.
The capital saw 31.3 per cent of students awarded an A* or A this year - up 1.3 percentage points on 2023. Some 30.8 per cent scored the top grades in the South East - up 0.5 percentage points.
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