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'I'd just witnessed my house burning down': Grenfell Tower schoolgirl hopes for A grade GCSE she sat hours after fire destroyed her home

'I was on two hours sleep and I had just witnessed my house burning down. But it hadn’t sunk in'

Lucy Pasha-Robinson
Wednesday 23 August 2017 16:30 BST
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Ines Alves escaped the fire with just her revision notes and pyjamas
Ines Alves escaped the fire with just her revision notes and pyjamas (Screenshot)

A teenage girl who took her GCSE chemistry exam just hours after escaping the Grenfell Tower fire has told of her hopes of achieving "an A at least" ahead of tomorrow's results day.

Inês Alves made headlines in the wake of the tragedy, that claimed at least 80 lives, after heading straight to school to sit her 9am exam in the clothes she escaped in just hours before.

The 16-year-old fled with just the clothes she pulled on over her pyjamas and her revision notes, as her family lost all their possessions when the fire gutted their 13th floor flat on 14 June.

"I hope I did OK," she told The Telegraph. "I did my revision notes a couple of months before, but I didn’t really get a chance to read through them – I had planned to look at them on the morning of the exam. But from what I remembered from lessons, I think I did OK."

She told how she sat the exam on just two hours sleep and before the scale of the tragedy had a chance to sink in.

Ines escaped the fire just hours before sitting her exam (Facebook)

"I was on two hours sleep and I had just witnessed my house burning down. But it hadn’t sunk in,” she said.

“Occasionally it popped into my head, [but] I just tried to get distracted by the exam questions.”

Kensington and Chelsea Council (RBKC) said children affected by the blaze would receive special consideration.

RBKC said grades of those pupils who sat their exams during that period would be “looked at, reviewed and modified accordingly if necessary”.

Teenagers will also have access to counselling and mental-health support on results days and when they start their new school terms in September, according to RBKC.

Council leader Elizabeth Campbell said: “We know that some pupils took exams following the night of the fire and in the days afterwards, and I want to ensure that their chances of a university or sixth form place are not impacted by something totally out of their control.

“The council has written to schools and made support available as pupils come to collect GCSE and A-level results over the next two weeks.

“We will also be there with help when the first day of term arrives in September.”

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