THREE students from a WGC school look set to join the country’s educational elite, after receiving offers to study at Oxford and Cambridge.

Ben Thomas, Ben Woodhams and Jafar Miles, from Stanborough School, will all be heading to university this autumn after accepting conditional offers from Oxbridge colleges.

The trio, who have all been at the Lemsford Lane school since year seven, said they were looking forward to the new challenges, but admitted they would miss their alma mater.

Ben Thomas, 18, who is hoping to read law at Oxford, said: “I’m really excited. I’m nervous about the exams, but hopefully it will be all right.

“The school’s been really good. It’s put on mock interviews and brought in guest speakers, to teach us interview techniques.”

Ben Woodhams, off to study natural sciences at St John’s College, Cambridge, said: “I always had the idea [to go Cambridge] but I didn’t know if it was possible. We couldn’t have done it without the school.”

And 18-year-old Jafar Miles is looking to read maths at Trinity College, Cambridge. “It’s always been on my mind to go to Cambridge,” he said. “It’s something I’ve been aiming towards.”

The students’ achievements complete a highly successful past period for Stanborough, which this year won a most improved award from the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.

Between 2006 and 2009 the school improved its GCSE A* to C grades by 19 per cent. In 2009 64 per cent of pupils gained A to C grades. It was ranked as the eight best post-16 provision in the county.

Headteacher Peter Brown said: “The exceptional hard work of our very talented staff and students has seen a great year-on-year improvement in our examination results.

“And we expect another significant increase in our GCSE performance this year.”