A Teesside student who has studied his A-Levels in Darlington has been bursting with pride after his stellar results have secured him a place at the University of Oxford.

Sam Jackson from Ingleby Barwick had his childhood dreams realised this morning (August 17) when his outstanding A-Level grades confirmed his place in Oxford.

After gaining 3 A*'s and 1 A grade at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, Sam will be off to St Hugh's College this September to study Mathematics. 

Read more: A-Level Results 2023: Students across the North East get results

Speaking to The Northern Echo amidst his whirlwind of a morning, Sam described the moment when his wildest dreams came true.

He said: "This has been an aspiration of mine throughout secondary school, and now this is happening it is really surreal.

"I actually did not think I was capable of doing it, but now that I have done it I am confident and believe in myself."

"I was really nervous last night and kept worrying, so I checked the UCAS website this morning and saw my place confirmed."

With his dream university place now confirmed, comes a daunting move across the country, which is something Sam has mixed emotions about.

He said: "It is quite frightening, but I am happy to take on this new challenge - I am quite an independent person."

After his degree, Sam is hoping to go into research, using his degree combined with physics.

For Sam's mum Sarah, his A-Level results are a proud achievement for the whole family.

She said: "We are so proud - he did doubt if he would get the grades he needed but he did it. We all believed in him but he needed to believe in himself.

"One of his teachers has said they knew from the beginning he would do it. He is so academic and disciplined, he has definitely put in the hours for this."

Read next:

Final day to get content from The Northern Echo and purchase a Premium Plus Digital Subscription for just £6 for 6 months.

Hundreds of thousands of students across the country received their A-level results on Thursday in a year when ministers and the exams regulator in England aimed to return to pre-pandemic grading.

More than a quarter (27.2%) of UK entries were awarded an A or A* grade, down by 9.2 percentage points on last year when 36.4% achieved the top grades.

However, this was still higher than in 2019 – the last year that summer exams were taken before the pandemic – when 25.4% of entries were awarded A or A* grades.