Sunderland College A* student Rosie Lawson off to Oxford after stunning A Level results

Rosie, 18, attained the top A Level marks in maths, further maths, physics and chemistry and is now about to ”see her dream come true” as she gets ready to study at one of the country’s most prestigious universities.

However, despite her stellar set of results, Rosie arrived at college this morning (August 15) unsure of how she had performed.

She said: “I felt sick coming into school this morning. I was checking my emails this morning to see if my Oxford acceptance notification had come through.

“Apparently the UCAS system was down and so when I arrived this morning I had no idea how I had done.

“I actually thought I had struggled with some of my exams, particularly physics. I really felt under pressure to get the grades I needed. When I opened the envelope I was shocked.

“When I realised I had the grades I needed to get into Oxford I jumped up and down and cheered.

“It was such a relief and I’m proud of what I have achieved.”

On the prospect of heading to Oxford, Rosie added: “I’m really excited. Studying at Oxford is something I’ve always dreamed of.”

Commenting on Rosie’s achievement, college principal and deputy chief executive of Education Partnership North East, Toni Rhodes, said : “We are exceptionally proud of Rosie and it’s such an amazing achievement to gain a place at the University of Oxford.

“To have a student from Sunderland gain a place at an Oxbridge university is a credit to the city and to the college.

On the college’s overall performance, Ms Rhodes added: “We are really pleased with the results this year and we have had an increase in our A* - B results as well as a 100% pass rate across many of our A Level subjects.

“We are really proud of all of our students.”

The first cohort of E Sports BTEC students also received their results following the college’s partnership with the British Esports in which the youngsters get to benefit from state-of-the-art facilities at the £7m National Esports Performance Campus in Sunderland.

Esports student Luke McCormick, 19, attained a merit in his BTEC Level 3 qualification.

He said: “It’s amazing to have the British Esports Federation here in Sunderland and the facilities we get to use are fantastic.

“I’m hoping to get into the industry in terms of both organising events and competing and I’m now going to stay on at the college to study for my Level 4 qualification.”

Media and film students excited by the prospect of new film studio

One of the college’s best performing departments was Film and Media which had a 100% A Level pass rate.

Fred Lee, 18 attained B grades in both subjects as well as a grade C in Business.

He said: “I was nervous coming into college this morning. When I saw my results I was excited, but also relieved as I knew I had got the results I needed to get my first choice place to study film at the University of Leeds.

“The building of the new Crown Works film studio is such an exciting prospect and should hopefully open up lots of jobs in the city.”

It was sentiment shared by Tyne Jeacock who scored straight B grades in film, media, English literature and his EPQ extra project.

Tyne, 18, said: “The new Crown Works film studio is a really exciting prospect. I’m really excited about going to study English at the University of Stirling.”

Film and media programme leader, Emma Leslie-Boddy, is also excited by the development of the new film studio on the banks of the Wear and hopes the college can develop a partnership and career pathways for her students.

She said: “It can often be difficult to convince parents that there are real job prospects in the film industry, but the new studios show students in the city that it is an industry which has real achievable career prospects.”