Dextra Rebelo was among students collecting their results at New College Swindon’s Queen’s Drive campus on Thursday, as the college celebrated improved results across A Levels, vocational qualifications, T Levels and apprenticeships.
For Dextra, the morning marked the end of a journey which began at Level 2 and has now taken her to a Distinction* in Sport and Physical Activity and a place at the University of Lancashire, where she plans to study sports therapy.
Speaking to Swindon24 shortly after receiving her result, Dextra revealed that she had previously failed Maths and English and had seen friends leave college after experiencing similar setbacks.
Instead, she decided to keep going. Dextra said:
“I’d probably say keep trying and never give up because I was there at that same position when I was doing level two and I failed my maths and English.
“I was like, if I give up now, then I don’t think I can actually go ahead with university because I had many of my friends who just left college because they failed their maths and English.
“But I stayed and I didn’t give up. I looked for more work experience, meeting new people, gaining new experience. Just don’t give up.”
Asked what had provided the motivation to turn things around, she said:
“Probably looking into the future. I was like, I definitely want to have a title like a sports therapist because that’s what I wanted to do.”
Her ambitions ultimately go further. Dextra told the college she hopes to work with a major sports club after university before eventually opening her own sports therapy centre.
Dextra has also built up considerable experience outside the classroom.
She told Swindon24 she works five jobs, including as a student ambassador at New College and with its estates team, as well as football coaching, athletics coaching and multi-sport coaching.
Asked how she managed to fit everything in, she replied: “I really don’t know.” She also finds time for three hobbies, baking, crocheting and painting.
Dextra credited her lecturers and the work experience opportunities available through New College with helping her reach university. She said:
“I think the lecturers were really helpful at every single step that I took, starting from level two all the way going up to level three.
“They always helped me find my work experience days, and I think that’s just actually gave me more experience to help me get into the university I wanted to get into.”
Her story reflects a theme Swindon New College Principal Leah Palmer was keen to emphasise on results morning, that achievement can look very different depending on where a student started.
Palmer told Swindon24:
“Today is a huge celebration of lots of hard work. Sometimes three years’ worth of hard work.
“A real culmination of dedication, commitment, and resilience to get through exams and final assessments and final major projects. So, a real celebration today of all of that hard work.”
The initial reaction from students, she said, had been overwhelmingly positive.
“I’m really glad to say that there’s lots of very, very happy students. Some tears, but they’re happy tears.
“Again, it’s that, I think, relief that they’ve achieved so well after all the hard work that they’ve put in.”
New College recorded a 93.5% overall A-level pass rate this year, while the number of A* and A high grades increased by 11%. Its vocational qualifications, including BTECs, achieved a 96% overall pass rate.
T Levels recorded one of the most significant improvements. The overall pass rate increased from 82% last year to 92% this year.
Some 15.4% of T Level students achieved a Distinction, compared with 4% last year, while 55% achieved the highest available grades of Merit or Distinction.
New College’s apprenticeship achievement rate was 70%, which the college said compared with a national average of 65% and a Government target of 67%.
But Palmer said the college’s success should not simply be measured by its highest grades.
She told Swindon24:
“We offer a qualification for every learner in Swindon. We are inclusive, so it just means exactly that, that there is something for everyone, regardless of your starting points.
“I particularly, as principal, am really proud of our students that have achieved A stars and going to Oxbridge to study dentistry and medicine.
“I’m equally as proud of the learners with a starting point that was different, and their individual achievement is really special for them.”
That message was reinforced in the college’s results-day statement.
Palmer said:
“Today is a celebration of our learners and everything they have achieved, and we are incredibly proud of every single one of them.
“Whether our learners are progressing to university, higher education at the New College Swindon University Centre, into apprenticeships or employment, today’s achievements represent the beginning of exciting new journeys.”
She added that the outcomes reflected the dedication of students, staff and the support of parents and carers.
Rachel Gear, New College’s Head of Careers and Work Experience, described the atmosphere at Queen’s Drive as “quietly confident”. She said:
“We’re seeing fantastic results coming through, particularly for our T-level programmes, where 92% of our learners have passed their programme, 15% have got a distinction.
“So we’re really thrilled to see that.”
Gear said the mandatory industry placement was particularly important because students were “getting the employability skills, getting the workplace skills that equips them ready for the workplace.”
She added:
“We’re all about flexibility here. Every learner we treat as an individual. It’s not that we force everybody down one pathway at all. We’ve got so many different options.”
Tony Gilbert, Head of Faculty for Professional, Digital, Travel and Hospitality, went further, describing 2026 as potentially the college’s strongest results year. He said:
“It’s been great. Probably our best year of results.
“Certainly with the T levels, high grades, certainly in T level finance and accounting and digital. Really, really pleased for the students and incredibly proud of the team as well.”
Tony said the breadth of qualifications available was also becoming increasingly important as education became more closely linked with industry. He said:
“We’ve got A levels, T levels, V levels coming in, and that’s not even talked about the level twos or apprenticeships or HE provision either.”
Asked what he considered the college’s greatest success this year, Gilbert said:
“I’d say our students.
“The students that we’ve had this year have been amazing. They’ve really focused, and the teachers as well.
“We’ve really focused with working with our students a lot more, working with schools, just that whole community approach with industry as well.”
That range of routes was apparent among the students Swindon24 met on results morning.
Kyrie Heathford achieved an overall Distinction in T Level Education and Early Years and will continue studying locally through an Oxford Brookes University course delivered in Swindon, studying Educational Practice.
Fellow Education and Early Years student Shannon secured a place at Liverpool Hope University, where she will study Education and English Language.
For others, results day brought more complicated decisions.
Ahmed, who studied Economics, Business and Psychology, had hoped for two A*s but received one. His options included the University of Southampton and an apprenticeship with KPMG.
He said:
“The plan now probably call up KPMG, see what they say. Call up Southampton, see what they say. Probably going to resit.”
Jack Hammond, meanwhile, achieved a Merit in his Level 3 Extended Diploma in Sport and Physical Activity and plans to move into coaching rather than university.
His coursemate Malik Isini achieved a Pass and has an altogether different ambition.
Malik told Swindon24:
“I’m not planning on going to uni, so it’s not too much of a big deal. I’m going to stick to my professional arm wrestling and earn some cash from that.”
Other high achievers highlighted by New College included Covenant Okeniyi, who achieved three As in Maths, Chemistry and Biology and plans to pursue a management consultancy apprenticeship after a gap year.
Imrana Wahid achieved AAB in Psychology, Sociology and Biology and is planning to study Psychology at the University of Bristol, while Ruben Loveday achieved a B in A-level Photography and a Distinction* in his A-level equivalent Music qualification. He has received five university offers in London and plans to take a gap year before deciding his destination.
For Palmer, the variety of those destinations is part of what New College is trying to achieve.
She said:
“I think sometimes we’re the best secret in Swindon.
“We’ve got an animal management centre, we’ve got a restaurant, we’ve got a real community organisation that some of our local community could make, I think, better use of.
“So come to the restaurant, come and see what we offer, and I think a lot of people will be really surprised.”
And for Dextra, results day provided perhaps the clearest example of Palmer’s point that achievement is relative to a student’s starting point.
Having once questioned whether failing Maths and English meant university was beyond her reach, she left Queen’s Drive with a Distinction*, a university place and a clear ambition to build a career in sports therapy.
Her advice to students whose results did not go to plan was simple: “Just don’t give up.”
