Honour for capital's young black achievers

A young jazz musician who grew up in care is among the black teenagers honoured today for achieving outstanding exam results against the odds.

Kwabena Adjepong, now 18, was taken into care aged 11 with his sister, who was only four at the time.

Despite the disruption of moving families, he achieved straight As in his A-levels this summer and is hoping to train as a jazz singer at one of London's leading music colleges next year.

He will be among 24 young people at a ceremony in the Houses of Parliament tonight to celebrate the London Schools And The Black Child Awards.

The prizes honour the top achievers at A-level, GCSE, and degree level. Results show Black Caribbean pupils struggle more than almost any other ethnic group to pass exams.

The scheme was set up by MP Diane Abbott to inspire children and parents to raise their aspirations, and to counter negative stereotypes about black youths. It has won the backing of Schools minister Lord Adonis and others including Sir Trevor McDonald and Lenny Henry.

Kwabena, of Sutton, was taken from his Ghanaian birth parents seven years ago when social services decided they were not able to care for him and sister Stephanie. After studying at The Charter School in North Dulwich he got As in music, French, and maths A-levels, and C in English literature AS-level.

He said black teenagers had to fight against negative images: "A lot of black and ethnic minority people are a bit disenfranchised by school.

"They are always telling themselves that the world is against them. But you have to work in the same space as everyone else - fight your corner and be responsible for your own actions. You can't blame anyone else for behaving in a way that's lazy or anti-social."

Alongside him tonight will be Chidi Amadi, who scored 10 A*s and five As at GCSE this year. The 16-year-old, from Clapham North, took his exams at Dunraven secondary school in Streatham, where he is now studying A-levels.

He aims to study science or maths at a top university such as Cambridge, Oxford or Imperial College London.

"The normal trend is that black people don't do well, they don't get very far. I do not want to be part of that group," he said. "I want to stand out as somebody who overcame the pressures black students are going through today." Sydney Viera, 18, counts herself lucky to have gone to a diverse school - St Dominic's Sixth Form College in Harrow - and to have parents who urged her to "do her best". In her A-levels she scored A in English, psychology and maths and B in General Studies. She also got two AS-levels. Now Sydney is studying law at King's College London.

She said it was crucial to challenge the perception that black youths were all involved in violence: "A lot of people I know aren't like what we see in the media. They agree all the stabbing and shooting is just stupid."