Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor A-Level students Alys Atking and Chloe Zarate attended a prestigious residential school at Cambridge University with the Seren Network.

Only open to students expected to achieve the highest grades possible nationwide, the residential courses are difficult to get into.

Alys, 17, studied a history course during her time at Cambridge. With only five to 10 students on each course, “we received a lot of attention from the lecturers,” the A-Level Mathematics, Further Mathematics, History and Chemistry Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor student said.

“My favourite part of the trip was getting a taste of life at a leading university and venturing around the city.”

Chloe, 16, who took part in the Human, Social and Political Sciences residential course at Cambridge is studying A-Level History, Maths and English at Dolgellau’s Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor.

Experiencing student life at Cambridge, Chloe enjoyed the accommodation and the food, and seeing “colleges such as Magdalene and Cambridge”.

“We got tours of the city and the other college campuses, which really showed how connected the whole place is,” she added.

“It was such an amazing experience and it inspired me to try and achieve the goal of being able to say I study at Cambridge University.”

A Welsh Government initiative, the Seren Network works with the brightest students in further education and schools across Wales to make sure that they achieve their full academic potential, supporting them to gain entry to leading universities across Wales, the UK and overseas.

Alys plans to study mathematics at Edinburgh University. Chloe is not sure what subject she wants to study yet, but also has university in her sights following a gap year first to “learn more about the world”.

“I will push myself to get the best grades I can so that I can keep my options as open as possible”, said Chloe.

Fflur Rees Jones, Assistant Principal at Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor said: “A huge well done to Alys and Chloe on their fabulous academic achievements so far. We are sure there are great things to come for them and we are very grateful for the opportunities that the Seren Network provides for our learners.”