Honywood School pupil who taught herself ecstatic with GCSEs

Caro Daniels and daughter Xanthe Goodman from Great Bardfield, have been jumping for joy after the 16-year-old achieved grades 5 to 8 across the board in her GCSEs.

Xanthe was at Honywood School in Coggeshall until Year 9 when the Covid lockdown hit, before moving to learning remotely during the pandemic.

However, after learning at home, she told mum Caro she did not want to go back to school.

Caro said: “She had just chosen her GCSE options and told me she preferred working from home.

“She didn’t have to queue for the bus or anything like that and got all her work done by lunchtime.

“So we looked into GCSE options, and had to change some because you couldn’t do coursework at home.

“We bought some books, subscribed to some online teaching, but she didn’t have a tutor so taught herself years 10 and 11.”

Xanthe sat her Maths and English exams a year early, and her Business and Physics exams six months early.

She then sat Human Biology, Chemistry, and English Literature this year.

Caro added: “She went back to Honywood, who were lovely, and sat them in private there and got grades 5 to 8 in seven subjects.

“I never had to nag her to study, and she did so well manging her time in between her sport life as she plays polocrosse for England.

“The only thing I was ever worried about was there was never a benchmark of where she was working, normally we would know what she was working towards at the end of Year 10 for example, but we were in the dark, and that was the only anxiety.

“But she did amazingly and we are so proud.”

Moving forwards, Xanthe wants to focus on her sport.

Caro said: “She has decided for now she is not going to do anymore formal qualifications.

“She wants to focus on vocational qualifications around horses and has set up her own business pet sitting to earn extra money.

“She is very keen on representing country in her chosen sport and is focusing a lot on her polocrosse.

“We are just going to take it as it comes.”