Ukrainian Oleksii Umanets scoops 7 GCSEs at York school

Oleksii Umanets - whose school in his home town Kharkiv was reduced to rubble by Russian shelling - collected his GCSEs at Joseph Rowntree School in York on Thursday morning (August 24).

They go with the sixteen grades he achieved via his destroyed school back home.

The 16-year-old spoke with The Press with his mother Natasha alongside him, wiping away tears of joy.

The Ukrainian nationals arrived in Heworth on July 12 last year after fleeing their war-torn homeland.

Natasha captured the damaged remains of Oleksii's classroom in Kharkiv. (Image: Natasha Umanets)

Oleksii attended his school - called Gymnasium Number 97 - in Kharkiv until the start of the conflict in February of last year.

He added 15 hours online study per week on average to his classes in the UK.

The mother and son arrived in the UK from Kharkiv via Bratislava in Slovakia, after spending weeks moving from basement to basement where citizens were sheltering and where Oleksii did his learning.

Miss Shepherd was on hand to celebrate Oleksii's GCSE achievements (Image: Kevin Glenton)

Natasha, 47, who works as a manager at petrol company Xado, said: "We arrived together. I understood that he needed study.

"Online study from a basement - it's not normal for these children.

"It's very sad for me, but it’s for his future."

Back home, at the start of the fighting, they were separated from their elders and spent their first night in a subway station.

Ready for the solidarity march through York in national dress and silver freedom necklace (Image: Kevin Glenton)

Oleksii said his 70-year-old grandfather had come face-to-face with machine gun fire.

After 42 days and nights in basements, they went to Bratislava with the intention of applying for authorisation for emergency travel to Canada to seek a safe haven.

Natasha said: “We had normal sleep, normal food, normal time.”

By this point an application for the UK’s Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in April 2022 had also come through.

Whitby was one of the many UK destinations Sarah and Peter took Natasha and Oleksii to. (Image: Oleksii Umanets)

Natasha said at the time she thought: “It’s maybe plan B, plan C.

“But not plan A.

“My plan A is to stay in Kharkiv with my family.”

Natasha and Oleksii were driven to Bratislava by her ex-husband, but could not move with her older son. At the age of 22 he could not leave Ukraine because of legislation under martial law.

Natasha said: “We waited. We hoped – ‘oh, tomorrow it will finish’.”

“One day I understood. It’s not finished.”

An invite from hosts Peter and Sarah in Heworth arrived and after a series of email exchanges and a WhatsApp call, the mother and son arrived at Manchester Airport on July 12 last year with a couple of suitcases.

Oleksii's only knowledge of the UK was London and Big Ben.

The day after they arrived, his host family had arranged a meeting at Joseph Rowntree School.

Oleksii said Deborah Shepherd, head of Year 11 at Joseph Rowntree, gave him "a lot of support and a lot of physical things".

He said: “She gave me my bike that I’m still using.

“She gave me Photoshop access because I’m interested in design."

He was also full of praise for teachers Margarita Martinez and Adam Brealey - and Natasha said most of the teachers sent cards and notes full of praise for her son.

Oleksii is due to attend York College at the start of the new academic year to study art and music.

Sian Jacobsen, assistant head, Key Stage 4, at Josepgh Rowntree, said: “Oleksii has been so hardworking and focused and has managed to achieve some incredible results.

“GCSEs are difficult enough, never mind when you have joined later than everyone else and are learning in a whole new language.

“He has achieved something really remarkable with his results and we are very proud of him.

“He has incredible artistic talent and has really excelled in maths and science too - it is very exciting to think what he will achieve in the future.”