Romanian girl leaps over language barrier with a solid GCSE outcome

MOVING schools is a mean feat, but moving to a different country with no vocabulary is a challenge in itself
Raluca Stoianovici, right, and Lucy Payne at Warblington School 
Picture: Keith Woodland (161232-6016)Raluca Stoianovici, right, and Lucy Payne at Warblington School 
Picture: Keith Woodland (161232-6016)
Raluca Stoianovici, right, and Lucy Payne at Warblington School Picture: Keith Woodland (161232-6016)

Raluca Stoianovici, 16, could barely speak a word of English when she moved from Romania and joined Warblington School two years ago.

Yesterday, she walked away with fluent pride in her Bs in music and ICT.

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She said: ‘We moved here with my family because they had work and moved jobs. I didn’t really know any English and I’m really quite happy with the results because I actually got to speak English properly.

Raluca, who now lives in Havant, also achieved Cs in maths and English language and literature.

‘It was a bit of hard work because I had to catch up with everybody and learn more English.

‘There were moments in class where I didn’t really understand what they were teaching or I had to carry around a dictionary all the time, but I caught up eventually.’

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‘The school gave me laptops if I needed to translate anything to Romanian. They were very understanding, and they knew it was going to be hard from the beginning, but I just went with it.’

Raluca will be leaping over her language barrier even further by taking on English language in her A-levels at South Downs College.

She will also be studying for qualifications in psychology and art and design. From there, she has a broad canvas of opportunities ahead of her.

She said: ‘I’ve not really thought about what I want to do for a job yet, but I know that after I get my A-levels I want to go to uni.’

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