Three pupils from Afon Taf High in Merthyr have won prestigious scholarships to UWC Atlantic College after getting the GCSEs they needed and passing interviews.
Atlantic College, near Llantwit Major, takes pupils from around the globe who study for the International Baccalaureate rather than A levels. The college’s students have included European royals.
Ceirion Galliers, Ethan Davies and Jaden Jones, all 16, will all start at Atlantic College on two year scholarships next term.
Read more: The little known Welsh college full of princesses, children of millionaires, and refugees
The scholarship for Ceirion, who achieved 12 GCSEs including five A*s, five As and two B grades, was awarded in memory of former Afon Taf High pupil Terrence Chewins.
Terrence attended UWC Atlantic and went on to Cambridge University before sadly dying aged 25 in a car crash in 1978. Terrence was the only child of Marion and Arthur Chewins who lived in Treharris and when Marion died before last Christmas she left in her will a two-year full scholarship (worth £67,000) to UWC Atlantic to be awarded to a pupil at Afon Tâf High.
Jaden and Ethan, who also did well in interviews for the same scholarship, were offered separate two year scholarships last term and will also be joining Atlantic College next term. You can follow our live GCSEs analysis, updates and reaction as Wales sees a record year here.
A fourth Afon Taf pupil Benjamin Durbin, who picked up nine A*s and three As in his GCSEs today, was awarded a summer Leadership Programme on a scholarship at Atlantic College before starting at Merthyr College in September.
Jaden thanked Atlantic College and Afon Taf High school for the "life changing opportunity".
Afon Taf deputy headteacher Stephen Baber said: “We are immensely proud of all of the pupils who participated in the application process and it is a real honour for the school to have four pupils achieve scholarships in the same year; it is the first time that the school will have three pupils from the same year group attending UWC Atlantic full time.”
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