MUSIC TO HER EARS: Evie Brenkley is off to Oxford to study music at Hertford College with a choral scholarship at Keble College.
MUSIC TO HER EARS: Evie Brenkley is off to Oxford to study music at Hertford College with a choral scholarship at Keble College.

MORE than one in four A level students at Barnard Castle School achieved A* and A grades in this year’s exams.
In all, 81 per cent of Barney students achieved A*-C grades, a rise of eight per cent compared to the 2019 exams – the last time students sat exams – with 28 per cent receiving A*-A marks.
Outstanding performers included Bleddyn Davies, who secured four A*s and a distinction in advanced mathematics, as well as an A* in his maths A level last year, and will read pure mathematics at the University of St Andrews.
Emma Kitson, earned two A*s and an A, and is preparing for a gap year in Australia before reading english and philosophy at the University of Sheffield.
Amelia Murray will study criminology at the University of Bristol after securing an A* and two A grades, while Oliver Guy's three As and a B and will see him read electronic engineering at the University of Manchester.
Muhammad Isma’il Hameed-Sharif achieved three As and an A* in his EPQ and is considering a gap year ahead of studying economics at Durham University.
Meanwhile, one of last year’s successful A level students is heading to Oxford University.
Evie Brenkley will study music with a choral scholarship.
She gained three A*s in her A levels last year but chose to defer attending university and instead accepted a job as a residential music gap assistant at her old school.
While there, she reapplied to university and with the help of the school’s director of music Richard Dawson and secured a place to read music at Oxford University’s Hertford College, with a choral scholarship at Keble College.
She said: “The gap year was brilliant because I was not only able to take the time to think through my future options, but it also allowed me to see the ‘other side’ of music education.
“I was actually teaching oboe to a Year 8 student when the email came through offering me a place at Oxford.”
The three-year degree will see Evie analyse and critically listen to various forms of music, study its history, psychology and place in society and also tackle composition and performance.
She will also play oboe in one of the orchestras and fulfilling her duties as a choral scholar by singing Evensong in the chapel at Keble College three times a week.
Barnard Castle School headmaster Tony Jackson said: “I am incredibly proud of our students who showed exceptional resilience when sitting formal examinations and assessments for the first time in their lives this year.
“Each and every student has shown great character and perseverance throughout their Barney journeys, embracing and engaging in school life regardless of the challenges faced during a period where not only their A levels were interrupted, but their GCSE courses too.”
Of Evie’s success, he added: “She proved to be an exemplary member of staff, as she had been a student.
“The work skills she learned over the past year and increase in self-confidence we witnessed will certainly stand her in good stead for her studies in Oxford and in the workplace once she decides on her future career.”