Six Yarm School students secure Oxford and Cambridge University places

Six students from Yarm School have been offered places at Oxford and Cambridge universities.

Sara Banerjee and Kitty Brown secured offers from the University of Oxford, while four students, Reuben Peat, Kayla Roberts, Jenifer Umashankar and James Waine, have been offered places at the University of Cambridge.

They will be heading to study a wide range of subjects: engineering, medicine, classics, chemistry and German.

Yarm has a strong track record of pupils gaining places at Oxbridge and Russell Group universities, as well as being accepted onto competitive medical, dentistry or veterinary (MDV) courses. In addition, the school has an impressive number of successful applicants to competitive degree level apprenticeships with some of the UK’s top firms. This year, 111 Upper Sixth students have applied to 66 different universities from Dundee to Plymouth and Belfast to East Anglia. At this early stage of the applications 90% of the current Upper Sixth at Yarm have already received one or more offers.

In 2023, 14 of the students who applied for MDV courses successfully obtained places, or 93 per cent, compared to 26 per cent nationally*. This sustained success at Yarm has seen 71 of the school’s students go on to study MDV courses in the past five years.

Yarm links with local maintained schools to provide career guidance for pupils across the region through the biennial careers convention and regular career cluster events, inviting aspiring medics to Yarm’s interview preparation programme and partner with Egglescliffe School & Sixth Form College on a unique work experience programme at Darlington Economic Campus.

In recent years, the school has also had students accepted on to an increasing variety of courses, achieving success in humanities, languages, engineering, art, drama and other creative subjects. In 2023, degree apprenticeship and apprenticeship placements were a popular choice, with eight Yarm students obtaining places on competitive schemes with industry leaders such as PwC, EY and BAE Systems.

Huw Williams, Headmaster at Yarm, said: “I am extremely proud of the students and delighted that their commitment and passion for their subject areas has been acknowledged with offers from Oxford and Cambridge. The students have excelled academically whilst fully engaging in our wide range of extracurricular activities.

“Our tailored careers programme supports students to select the right career path for them, resulting in diverse and successful university applications. The preparation for Oxford, Cambridge and medicine courses is rigorous and we are proud to share guidance with pupils beyond Yarm.”

* https://www.themedicportal.com/blog/ucas-application-stats-for-2023-entry-medicine/