Huge congratulations to both of my A-level students on their outstanding achievements this summer – and on choosing such bold and thought-provoking topics for their IRPs!

Arina from Truro College achieved an incredible A* for her Independent Research Project on cruelty to animals in Russian circuses – a challenging and emotionally charged theme which she handled with great maturity and insight. Anna, whose speaking exam I conducted at Truro School, also earned a well-deserved A* for her IRP on the work of the Russian intelligence services – another highly complex and intellectually demanding topic.

Both students invested an enormous amount of time and effort in researching, structuring and practising their projects, and throughout the year we worked very closely together to develop the linguistic precision and analytical depth that these themes require. The result speaks for itself, and I honestly could not be more proud of them.

A particularly special congratulations to Arina, who will be starting Spanish and Italian at Oxford University this September – proof that hard work and dedication really do make dreams come true!