A university first – and it's Oxford!

IT’S quite something to be the first person in your family to go to university – but something else again when it is Oxford.
Lydia Prescott, from Callands, is hoping to go on to do a degree in Earth Sciences after completing her A Levels at Priestley College.
And she has received an offer from the University of Oxford.
Lydia, 17, said: “At the moment I’m really excited. No one else in my family has been to university so going will be a totally new experience.
“I’ll probably get more worried towards summer about finance and accommodation and everything else, but at the moment I’m really looking forward to it.”
Lydia, who attended Great Sankey High School, is studying A Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Maths at Priestley.
She is also on the Graduate, a unique programme that is geared towards helping high achievers at Priestley secure places at the best universities.
Senior tutor Mark Salmon – who last year won O2’s Young People’s Champion Award – encouraged her to apply for Oxford.
“My confidence has been boosted at Priestley and I have to thank Mark Salmon for all of his help when it came to applying to university and for inspiring me to apply to Oxford,” she said.
“To be offered a place at Oxford University studying a subject that I love is incredible,” said Lydia. “If I can continue to work in the field of Earth Science after I finish my degree that would be a dream come true.”