TWO students are heading for the country's oldest universities after achieving top marks.

Robert Griffiths and Catherine Salkeld, both pupils at St Bede's in Lanchester, County Durham, scored a total of seven A grades between them.

Robert, 18, is looking forward to studying French with Dutch at Girton College, Cambridge, after passing his Spanish, French and maths exams with flying colours.

"I couldn't believe it," said the former head boy. "I felt relief, really, because I was under a lot of pressure.

"When you are predicted those grades and have been offered a place at Cambridge, everyone assumes you are already going, but there was still a lot of work to do."

He got a taste for the Dutch language after his father landed a job at Nissan's offices in Holland.

"I used to live in Amsterdam for two years, so it is carrying on the little that I learnt then," he said.

His fellow student, Catherine, 18, achieved straight As in French, Spanish, English and maths.

Her results have clinched her a place at Hertford College, Oxford, studying French and Spanish.

Other students celebrating included Martin Walls and Suzanne Fleming, who each achieved three A grades.

They are the first class at the school to complete two years under the new A-levels system, which allows pupils to study a wide range of subjects in the first year at AS Level, before concentrating on a core in the final year.

The head of sixth form, Roger Purdey, said: "This is the first set to come through the new AS system and they have been guinea pigs really.

"They found the lower sixth quite difficult, because there was a lot of pressure and more exams."