NERVOUS sixth formers across Oxfordshire picked up their A-Level results yesterday, with many heading straight to university in September to avoid substantial tuition fees in 2012.

Oxford’s The Cherwell School posted the best results among the county’s state schools, with 39 per cent of grades at A* or A and 17 pupils heading to Oxford or Cambridge.

Sam Brockie, 18, from Cherwell Drive, Marston, will be heading to Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge, to read engineering after securing four A*s.

He said: “It was quite a ner-vous morning and I didn’t sleep much last night.

“It’s nice to know all the hard work has paid off.”

Meanwhile the fee-paying Magdalen College School, in Cowley Place, may have posted the best results in the country, with 91.27 per cent of results at grade A* or A.

Master Tim Hands said: “On all that we know, these results exceed anything that has been attained before.”

Matthew Daggitt, 18, from Kidlington, was one of five boys taking home an incredible five A* grades – but he has yet to find out if he is heading to Cambridge after not quite making the grade on two extra maths papers set by the university.

Future Olympic skeet shotgun hopeful Charles Davidmann, 18, from Thame, picked up two A*s and two As despite juggling his studies with commitments to the British shooting team.

Oxford Academy celebrated its first A-Level results day, after introducing the qualifications two years ago.

Principal Mike Reading said: “What’s particularly pleasing is the number of students who have exceeded their forecast grades and we also have students who will be the first in their family to go to university.”

Among them was Jordan Marsh, 19, from Greater Leys, who received three distinctions in his BTEC diploma in sports studies and D in English AS-Level, and will be starting at Oxford Brookes University this autumn.

He said: “I have always wanted to do something with sport and my teachers said I need to get the grades and go to university, so I got my head down and did it.

“My family are over the moon, my dad can’t believe it and doesn’t know where I’ve got it from.”

At the city’s newest school, Oxford Spires Academy, Adam Mashongamhende picked up A*s in economics and geography and As in history and French.

The 18-year-old, who arrived in Britain from Zimbabwe aged six, will study Chinese and history at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London from September.

He said: “When I got the results I was really relieved.

“It hasn’t been eating me up all summer but it’s definitely a relief to get it done.”

Twelve students at Didcot Sixth Form achieved at least three A* or A grades.

Among them was 18-year-old Helen Turner, who is heading to Woollongong University in Australia to read geography and international relations.

“I definitely won’t be able to bring my washing home at the weekend,” she joked.

At Wood Green School in Witney, top student Connie Triggs, 18, got her place to study maths at St Anne’s College, Oxford, after gaining four A*s.

And at Abingdon and Witney College, 20-year-old Stacey Nutley, from Wantage, achieved straight A*s in geography, psychology and sociology.

lsloan@oxfordmail.co.uk