A PORTISHEAD school is celebrating its most successful year ever for Oxbridge place offers.

Seven Gordano School sixth form students have been offered conditional places at either Oxford or Cambridge universities in September.

The gruelling process began in the summer term of 2013 with the drafting of personal statements and a summer holiday of extra reading around the students’ chosen subjects.

Entrance tests were taken in the autumn term and the pupils attended interviews in December. They then had a nail biting wait until the offers arrived this month.

Olivia Withers and Miles Chandler will read English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Suzannah King will also read English at Oxford, at Regents Park College. Adam Stevens will attend Keble College, Oxford, to read chemistry.

The Cambridge places go to Rachel Kemp, who will read veterinary medicine at Emmanuel College, while Edward Wheatcroft and Ben Hunter-Craig will both read engineering, Edward at Corpus Christi College and Ben at Selwyn College.

Gordano headteacher Gary Lewis said: “We are incredibly proud of the students who have received offers from Oxford and Cambridge, as we are of all the students who have received offers from universities or gained apprenticeships and work places.”

The seven potential Oxbridge students still have several months of hard work ahead of them to ensure they achieve the A level grades required to allow them to take up the offers.