Yahoo News Grenfell Tower survivor Inês Alves celebrates A grade in GCSE sat hours after the disaster
Grenfell Tower survivor Inês Alves, who made headlines when she sat a school exam just hours after escaping from the inferno, has celebrated a string of top grades in her GCSEs.
The 16-year-old achieved a grade 9 - the highest available - in Maths, an A in Science, and an A* in Spanish.
She was awarded an A in the Chemistry paper that she sat just hours after escaping from the Grenfell disaster.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Inês said that she was "relieved it is all over".
"[The school has been] really good, really supportive," she said after receiving her results. "I'm quite happy with my grades."
She later told ITV's This Morning: "It just goes to show that if you really want something you can get it.
“I wasn't expecting to get attention for just sitting a GCSE exam, as everyone else did. At the time I just thought it was normal."
Inês, who is a currently a pupil at the all-girls Sacred Heart High School in Hammersmith, was particularly pleased to receive an A in Science, her favourite subject.
The school's headteacher, Marian Doyle, said her results were "fantastic".
"I can't help smiling," she said.
Inês' grade 9 in Maths places her in the top three percent of the country. The grade 9 was introduced for the first time this year to distinguish the most gifted students.
She has also decided to take Chemistry, Maths, Economics, and Sociology at A-Level.
In an interview published by The Telegraph earlier this week, Inês revealed that she had still been in shock when she sat the exam.
“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.”
It was only when she had finished the paper that she was finally overwhelmed: “I just burst into tears.”
Inês revealed that she was planning to see a counsellor following the events of 14 June.
“I’m going to start counselling. I feel like if I keep everything bottled, at one point I’m going to just burst. It’s better to let things out one at a time,” she said.
“I just feel like, maybe I need someone to talk it through that I don’t necessarily know.
“I try to act strong in front of everyone, but then obviously I’ve had my moments.”
During the interview, Inês said that she was still haunted by the victims of the fire.
“When I’m falling asleep, sometimes [they] just come into my head. Different people. People that I’d recognise, that would always say ‘hi’ to me or smile at me.”
Inês lived on the 13th floor of the Grenfell Tower with her parents and her older brother, Tiago, who studies physics at King's College London. The family have been living in a hotel since the fire.
The Alves family lost everything they owned, including family photos and gold jewellery from the children’s christenings and holy communions.
“We were very upset in the beginning about losing everything, but now we understand we’re never going to get it back, so we just have to live with that,” Inês said.
However, the youngster admitted that the idea of never returning to her childhood home still seems surreal.
“I lived there since I was born,” she said. “Each and every floor was different and multicultural. It’s where I was brought up.
“It still hasn’t really hit me that I’m never going to be able to go home.”
