TWO high-flying students at Barnard Castle School have received the rare accolade of an unconditional offer to pursue their chosen university courses. Erika Lee will study production, art and design at the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow, alumni of which include David Tennant and James McAvoy.

James Robertson will take a masters of computer science at Newcastle Univeristy. They are both thrilled to have received these offers for courses which, in each case, are arguably among the best in their field in the UK.

Erika, 18 from Hong Kong, arrived at Barney at 11 with limited English, however since that day she has thrown herself into school life, become fully fluent and is head of her girls’ boarding House.

Over the years she has been responsible for the design of many stage sets including “Back to the 80s” and “12 Angry Men”. Later this term she is designing the set for and appearing in “Grease.” When Erika leaves at the end of this year she will leave behind a lasting legacy in the form of a stained glass window which she designed to mark the School Chapel’s 100th year.

James is following a very different path and one that he hopes will result in him working in online security and cryptography. James acquired his passion for IT from spending enjoyable hours with his grandfather on a computer as a young child. He started programming when he was in his last year at Barnard Castle Prep School, aged just 10, using AutoHotkey. He has gone on to learn Python, Java, PHP, Javascript and C#. During his GCSEs he took up some work experience with MHT Technology, based in Melsonby, where he worked with professionals on writing a program that functioned as a search facility for a database.

As well as studying A Levels in computing, maths, physics Pre-U and AS further maths, James is currently working on a computer program that will enable future sixth formers to vote online for their sixth form common room elections.