A JAZZ composer and a computer software designer in the St. Ambrose College sixth form have won offers from top Oxford and Cambridge colleges.

James Watkins, 18, from Hale, needs to get an A* and two A grades in this summer's exams, to take up the offer to study Music at Downing College, Cambridge.

James has already performed at the Royal Albert Hall with the Greater Manchester Jazz Orchestra and teaches piano in school. A devotee of the modern jazz greats Michael Camillo and Brad Mehldau, James also wants to be a composer conductor and feels the course offers “a wonderful range of options”

Samuel Hindmarch, 17, from Cheadle Hulme, has an offer of an A* and two A grades from Keble College, Oxford to read Computer Science. One of St. Ambrose's leading young actors, he says he chose the course because: “I like problem solving, am a logical thinker and enjoying programming and writing algorhithms. It would be nice to be spotted by a company while I was studying at Oxford, but I suppose everyone says that.”

Head of St. Ambrose College sixth form Pauline Ridgway said: “James and Samuel are two exceptional young men who impressed the demanding Oxbridge admissions tutors not only with their skills inside the classroom, but their capabilities and ambitions outside of class as well.”