OLDHAM may be short on dreaming spires but when it comes to academically making the grade four students from the town’s Sixth Form College have secured offers from Oxford University.
Two more of the OSFC’s Year 13 group have also won places to Cambridge University.
Gaining their Oxbridge places was the culmination of more than a year of extra work by the six, including Owen Cross from Newhey who will go to Oxford to read history.
His fellow pupils are Chadderton trio Molly Aspinall (archaeology and ancient history/Oxford), Cian Lomax (chemistry/Oxford) and Tooba Zahid (mathematics/Cambridge) along with Ayeza Akhtar from Werneth (medicine/Oxford) and Oliver Cooney from Denton (linguistics/Cambridge).
During their additional 12 months, the youngsters conducted intensive research into courses and colleges, attended preparatory sessions, sat mock and real entrance exams, and have been through practice and real interviews.
Due to lockdown, much of the preparation and their actual interviews has all been undertaken remotely online.
Richard Lee, Assistant Principal and coordinator of OSFC’s work with High Achievers, was full of praise for the six, saying: “We were thrilled with the students’ offers.
“They have all shown incredible dedication and fully deserve these amazing outcomes.
“We were really pleased that students have places in such a wide range of subjects, highlighting the strength of the college across all curriculum areas.
“The maturity with which they have dealt with all the complications caused by the pandemic and retained their single-minded focus on their studies and preparations, is entirely to their credit and makes their achievements all the more impressive.”
Molly is excited at the chance “to study at an amazing university” while Ayeza cannot wait to meet “like-minded people who are as passionate about medicine as I am.”
For Oliver, it is the famous style of study at Cambridge that appeals as he will be “given an exhilarating opportunity to work with the world’s leading academics, as if you’re one of them.”
They all praised the college’s Oxbridge Group for how it helped with every step of the application process while showing the students that “people like me can get there, and it isn’t impossible”,
Oxford and Cambridge have been repeatedly ranked first and second in the UK, while Oxford was placed as number one in the ‘World University Rankings 2021’ by The Times newspaper.
It sounds like a team off University Challenge! I think it is a wonderful outcome and I am especially pleased as my grandson has chosen to study there.