A RECORD seven students from Cirencester College have today secured their Oxbridge places with outstanding results.

Cecily Fasham, Jessy Zhang, Lauren Purdy, Sophie Illsley, Leasha John, Karen Chouhan and Thomas Schaffner are all heading to one of the top two universities in the country.

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The Stroud Road college continued its strong tradition of producing vets and medics, with Pam Nelson (Bristol), Eddie Sewell (Southampton), Lydia Zioupos (Edinburgh) and Beth Turner (Leicester) will all go on to study Medicine at university.

This year has also seen consistently high scores in Sciences, Maths and Modern Languages.

Biology and Chemistry achieved 48 A and A* grades between them, while there were 39 A* to B grades in Geography, out of a cohort of 72, and Photography got an incredible 17 A*s and five As out of 38 students.

Principal Jim Grant said: “I would like to congratulate our students on another year of outstanding results.

“This has been the first year of the new linear A-levels, which have shown a massive increase in retention and achievement rates over the two year linear A level compared to the same subjects in non-linear years.”

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Jim Grant

He said he was sad to be saying goodbye to the World Development A level, which this year bowied out with 31 As and A*s and 52 out of 55 students gaining A* to B.

In September, the college introduces an International Relations to fill the gap of this high performing subject.

“We wish all our students every success in their futures and based on last year’s graduating students of whom over 81 per cent gained first class or upper second class honours they can be confident about this,” he added.

Cirencester student and nationally acclaimed runner Zoe Wassell, gained a coveted place at the University of Longborough, thanks in no small part to the college’s mixed qualification programmes.

Zoe had an A grade in her A-level Psychology course, alongside her triple Distinction * in Sports Science, equivalent to three A*s.

The college’s highest achiever was James Winfield is Cirencester College's top achiever with four A*s in Business, Economics, Maths and Geography.

A former pupil of Deer Park, 18-year-old James is off to study Economics at the London School of Economics.

Speaking to the Standard on Thursday morning after collecting her results, Polly Mills said exam time had been stressful but she would miss the college.

Polly, 18, is looking forward to going to Durham University to study Law next month.

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard:

Polly Mills

She achieved an A* in English Literature and Language, as well as three As in Economics, History and Politics.

Her grandfather studied English at Durham and she has family living up there.

“I’m really looking forward to studying Law because I’ve never studied it before in depth, and just experiencing something completely new, education-wise is exciting.

"It will be totally different to college, and I’m looking forward to meeting new people.”

Asked how she has found revision, she said: “It’s been stressful, definitely, because there have been no past papers and we’ve all been a bit in the dark.

"I’ve really enjoyed all my subjects. My teachers have been really good. I will miss the environment here. It’s such a nice college. Everyone is really friendly."