Shola Aku is a Year 9 student at Waterloo Road High School.
Series 11[]
Having come up with the idea of using paint in the protest to rename the school on the first day of term, Shola is devastated after Chlo Charles dies after sustaining an injury during the protest-turned-riot. Feeling like she played a part in her death, she accompanies Kim Campbell to Chlo's funeral but they leave after Donte Charles admonishes Waterloo Road for being the reason Chlo passed away. They head into the graveyard where Kim shows Shola the grave of her son Dexter and tells her to stop blaming herself for Chlo's death. When they get back to school, Shola tells Kim she reckons she was a great mother to Dexter while he was alive.
She also runs in the school council elections and wins the Year 9 election.
Series 12[]
Following Danny Lewis stabbing Vinny McCullen at the end of the previous series, there is extra security manned by police officers at the school gates at the start of this series, which Shola criticises, stating that it doesn't make her feel safe.
Later in the series, Shola comes into school late and with bruises on her arms which are noticed after she uncharacteristically kicks off in class, sparking fears that she is being abused at home, but it is later revealed that while her father is away - which happens increasingly often because of his work - Shola cares for her mother Abena, who suffers from fibromyalgia and chronic back pain, and Shola received the bruises from Abena gripping her arms too hard when Shola helps her to stand up after she falls. After Valerie Chambers discovers the situation, Jamilah Omar says that social services will help Shola with a young carer's assessment.
Series 13[]
In Series 13 it is revealed that Shola has developed a crush on police officer Mike Rutherford after participating in his self-defence classes. When Dean and Schuey Weever mock her for taking the classes, she takes Schuey down with a kick to the thigh learned in the class. Mike witnesses this and lightly scolds her before telling her he has had to cancel that day's session, leaving her disappointed. She fantasises about Mike and writes her fantasies in her diary, which Schuey later discovers and reads aloud to the school, causing Shola to run off distraught. Mike finds her and comforts her, and she hugs him right as Schuey passes by, and he reveals the hug to deputy head Lindon King, causing a major panic for the staff that Shola's fantasies in her diary might be true, and the police withdraw Mike from the school pending an investigation into his conduct, but Shola later reveals that everything in her diary is made up, and Mike is exonerated.
On the last day of term, the highest-attendance pupils, including Shola, are given vouchers that they can use to get free pizza at the end of the day as a reward for their high attendance, however Noel McManus steals Shola's voucher and photocopies it, resulting in pretty much everyone getting free pizza.
Series 14[]
In Series 14, Shola befriends Billy Savage and supports him through his bullying at the hands of Schuey Weever.
In Episode 5, when the school brings back the buddying scheme for a load of deaf children joining following the closure of St Jude's School for the Deaf, Shola kindly offers to be Luca Smith's buddy, and when he tells her that he can't understand his assigned community support worker (CSW) because she is unqualified in sign language, Shola encourages him to explain all his struggles to the teachers.
In Episode 7, Shola's father comes into school to complain to maths teacher Nisha Chandra about Shola's grades slipping.
Series 15[]
Quotes[]
- "For standing up to slavery? Come on, get it off. Built on blood! Not my school!" (first line)
- "The red paint was my idea, OK? It was supposed to be symbolic. I didn't know cretins like him were going to abuse it!"
- "Miss? I reckon you were a banging mum."
- "Don't know how you can even show your face in this election, after what you did at the protest? You don't care about any issues!"
- Shola: "Look, I didn't wanna kick off earlier, but I can't believe you've allowed the police in school."
- Kim: "It's to make everyone feel safer."
- Shola: "It doesn't make me feel safe."
- "Cos he's making me look stupid! But oh no, blame Shola. 'You look like death, Shola, try harder, Shola!', well I do, but it's never enough!"
- "Well, it's not always like this. She's got fibromyalgia, and chronic back pain. It flares up. Today is a bad day."
- "I like him. You know, cos he's funny, and he's kind, and he listens without being patronising. You know? So uh, when he cancelled kickboxing earlier, I was so gutted that I wouldn't be able to spend time with him, do the thing that I love. So I lied. And I told him that my mum was ill. I knew he'd want to help. I know I shouldn't have lied, but...but...I just wanted to spend some time with him. There was nothing weird about it. I swear."
- Shola: "As if I'm gonna give you my pizza voucher."
- Noel: "Alright, well I only wanna see it then."
- Shola: "You coulda seen it if you'd come to school more!"
- "You don't. It's just a broken guitar, better that than your legs. You can still play in the band with any old guitar."
- Shola: "Aren't you a bit old for all that though, Miss?"
- Tonya: "Shola! Mortified." (when Kim Campbell returns and reveals her pregnancy)