STAFF and students from a Dursley school are celebrating continued success – with a good placing in new national statistics and several pupils earning offers from top universities.

Rednock School recently learned their GCSE results placed them among the top 25 per cent of schools in England and Wales.

Coupled with this, is the news that several students have won offers from top universities, with two students receiving offers from Oxford.

Head teacher Dave Alexander spoke to the Gazette about his pride in his students and delight at hearing about the recently released statistics from the Department of Education.

“The percentage mark is a new performance measure that we only found out about recently. We weren’t trying for it so it’s fantastic to hear our students have made more progress than 75 per cent of other schools,” he said.

“I would like to pay tribute to the fantastic team of teachers and support staff who work here at Rednock.

"I am very proud of this achievement and the parents should be too.”

Mr Alexander also expressed his joy at hearing several A-level students in Rednock’s sixth form had received offers from universities including Oxford, Plymouth and Bath.

“It’s very good to hear, as offers from universities like these are not based purely in academia. It’s things beyond the curriculum, like personality, and students have to reach a certain level before these universities will even consider them,” he continued.

“It’s a nice relief for them, as they now know what it is they need to aim for.”

Callum Harries, 17, of Dursley, has received a conditional offer from Oxford University to study medicine.

To reach this stage, Callum had to go through a series of interviews, many of which were conducted by two or three people.

“I’m very excited. I was very pleased and surprised to be given an offer. My parents were excited as well. My mum couldn’t quite believe it,” he said.

“Rednock has been very helpful in preparing me for the interviews.

“I’m quite interested in neuroscience but it is a six year course so I have plenty of time to decide what field I want to go into.”