Grieving teen gets into Oxford after pledge to mum

Gabrielle Morgan believes her late mother would proud after she achieved A* grades in her A-levels

A sixth-form student has fulfilled a promise made to her mother before she died by securing a place at Oxford University.

Gabrielle Morgan, a pupil at Newcastle's Dame Allan School, said she felt her mother would be "celebrating" after she got A* grades in A-levels for English Literature, Spanish and Chemistry.

The 18-year-old, whose mother Faustina died of lung cancer in April last year, will take her place at the university to study modern languages in October.

She said her mother would be proud of her and had made her promise to "push" herself as hard as she could to succeed.

Last year, her sister Francesca achieved A* grades in her exams and secured a place at Cambridge to study natural sciences.

The sisters were both home-schooled by their mother, who was from Malaysia, before joining Dame Allan, an independent school.

Miss Morgan said: "My mum was incredible, strong, organised, inspiring and a person of great faith.

"She supported every interest we had, helped us through our GCSEs and pushed us to work hard.

"She made me promise to keep working hard on my Oxford application no matter what happened.

"I could practically hear her celebrating with me when the offer came through."

Miss Morgan, who speaks English and Mandarin, said she had been passionate about languages and storytelling from a young age and hoped to become an author.

"The literary world has always been central to my life," she said.

"Tolkien is my favourite author - he studied and taught at Oxford and wrote the books that shaped my love of reading. That's why I decided to apply there."

Molly Naas said she kept going with her studies despite her mother's death to "make her dream come true"

Molly Naas, a pupil at New College Durham in Framwellgate Moor, is also grieving her mother.

She said achieving a merit in an Early Years in Education T-level was a "dream come true" and she hopes to be a teacher.

The 18-year-old from Sherburn, in County Durham, said: "I've managed to pull it out of the bag, I lost my mam earlier in the year and our dream was for me to finish the course.

"So I managed to keep going for her and make our dream come true.

"I've always enjoyed looking after kids, I've always done babysitting. They are all different and hilarious and there's never a dull moment."

Teachers at New College Durham said exam students had gained "fantastic apprenticeships

Alison Maynard, deputy principal at the college, said all students had got into their first choice for university, as well as landing "fantastic apprenticeships" with some "amazing companies".

She said: "As you can see by the grin on my face the students have done absolutely amazingly.

"Some of our students have beaten off 1,400 applications to gain fantastic apprenticeships.

"It's not just about A Levels, they are fantastic, but the T Level students have done equally as well."