Students in the Upper Sixth (Year 13) at St Benedict’s School, Ealing have gained ten conditional university offers for Oxford and Cambridge colleges. Headmaster Chris Cleugh said: “This is the best result we have had at the School since my arrival six years ago and we have to go back at least twenty years for a similar achievement.

"Students and staff have worked very hard to make this possible. Our aim is now for all to achieve their offers with excellent A level results in the summer.”

Successful Cambridge applicants are Jack Belloli, with an offer to study English at Christ’s College and Stefan Koya for Natural Sciences at Jesus College.

Sean Beirne has won a Music scholarship at St Peter’s, Oxford. Other offers at Oxford have been gained by Michael Ciuperceanu (Engineering at Magdalene), Andrew Lavelle (History at St Hugh’s), Chris Newell (Material Science at St Catherine’s), Kumaran Perinpanathan (Chemistry at Somerville), Jonathan Surr (Physics at St Hilda’s), Johannes Walker (Chemistry at Lincoln) and Richard Winslett (History at Hertford).

Chris Newell decided to take up Material Science following an Open Day at Oxford last year. Richard Winslett was inspired by his History teacher – Robin Nonhebel. He chose Hertford because one of the leading tutors on the Crusades, Christopher Tyerman, is resident at the college. Sean Beirne felt that Music is the most influential thing in our society. He said, “My course is fascinating, because it is a melting pot of all academic disciplines. I can’t wait to get started.”