There are celebrations at Helston Community College with the news that every student who had university interviews at Oxford or Cambridge before Christmas have received offers to study there.

All four students were successful in their applications - a similar number to last year's college cohort.

Among them are Thomas Fogg, who was one of only 14 per cent of applicants in the country to win a place to study physics at Oxford, said “I am really looking forward to the opportunity to start the course in September, as I thoroughly enjoyed the days spent at Trinity College during the interview process.

"I would also like to thank the staff at Helston Community College who helped me with the preparation, especially the mock interviews, which made me feel a lot more confident in the stressful situation."

Finlay Ford, who hopes to study engineering at Oxford, was also thrilled with the news, say he had always had a strong desire to study at one of the top universities, and chose Trinity due to its excellent reputation.

Joining him at Oxford will be Ollie Wedlake, on an engineering course, while Lucy Treloar has secured an offer to study veterinary science at Cambridge, alongside other offers for veterinary science.

In addition, Jacob Tiddy has secured three offers to study medicine at Plymouth, Exeter or at St George’s, London.

Dave Dudley, assistant headteacher with responsibility for Post 16, said: "The college continuously works hard to encourage students to raise their aspirations and aim for their very best, and the journey for many of these successful students started with a visit to the University of Oxford when they were in year 11."

This continued in year 12 when the students were guided through the preparation for the challenging entrance exams designed to stretch the most able students in the country.

Information events were hosted at Truro School, where in year 13 mock interviews were held for the students at an Oxford Tea, as well as at Helston Community College.

"These are hugely competitive courses - for example, the official statistics from the University of Oxford, relating to the physics course, states that only 14 per cent of applicants are offered a place, and so the college is immensely proud of the achievements of these students.

"Indeed, we are proud of all of our students currently securing offers from a large range of universities, and we wish them all the best of luck in the summer exams," added Mr Dudley.