Good news for my family.

[Cibach]

I have always been a very proud Mum of my daughter Anna.
This New Year has started very well for us.
Anna is 18 years old now and is applying to university. At the beginning of December she was invited for interviews to study maths at Cambridge University. She was not feeling very optimistic about how the interviews went, but this morning she received a letter from her chosen college, St Catharine's, offering her a place in October. They will be writing again soon to let her know the grades she will need to get in her A level exams in the summer. She will have her work cut out for her as they set a very high standard, but I have every confidence in her.
She is the only person from either side of the family to get anywhere near such a prestigious university and the first pupil from her school ever to have applied to Cambridge
A great start to the year for us.

[Catherine]

Congratulations to you and your Daughter.
You must be one proud mother right now.

Cambridge is pretty special and math! Not too many people are that good at math. This is really great news. Tell Anna that I think she is very clever to get accepted to Cambridge for math. I knew 2014 would be a good year.

I hope you guys are celebrating as much as this news deserves.

[Cibach]

Thank you, Catherine. I am always proud of Anna but this is very special. Anna attends an ordinary state comprehensive school ie all abilities, all kinds of people and not a lot of funding. In order to even just apply to Cambridge Anna has had to study a maths course that the school don't teach, in addition to the maths they do teach. The school clearly want the best for her as they have found her the tuition she needs and are funding it for her.
I think they are amazed that a pupil from their cohort is in a position to apply.
As a family we are reasonably bright on the whole and most of Anna's cousins have gone to university, but no one has even applied to Cambridge (or Oxford).
Anna's Dad is very bright. He took all his exams early and went to Uni at 16 but was too young to cope and dropped out to become a professional musician for a year or two before doing his National Service. He is considerably older that I and although he is understandably proud of his other 2 children from his first marriage, I think Anna is the icing on the cake. (He has told me that he wonders if I had been the mother of his other two would they have done better academically. I just laughed and said it would have been a medical miracle for me to be their mother as we are almost the same age!!)
I hope the new year continues to be as good for us and for everyone.

[Knight of Albion]

Well done Anna!

[AnimalFamily]

What wonderful news Cibach!! I'll bet you're so happy you feel like you will burst. Sounds like Anna has done very well so far and will go on to do great things. Congratulations to all of you for a job well done!!!

[Catherine]

I know how important Cambridge is. I think Cambridge and I think WOW! Being accepted there is really significant. Anna can feel like a success just for being able to apply and be accepted. Her school must be very excited. She will go down in school history as the student who went to Cambridge. She will be held up as an example for other students for years to come.

You and your husband must have done something very right. It helps that the opportunity to go to university is there, but Anna had to do the work and you must have encouraged her. I can see how Anna would be the special one for your husband and of course she is your daughter and watching her have opportunities and successes is one of the joys of being a mother.

It looks like 2014 is going to be a special year.

[Tobi]

You all must be very proud of Anna. I hope she enjoys Cambridge! I wish her all the best and good luck in the future.

[Catherine]

I love hearing good news like this. Enjoy the happy feelings of success, Anna, you do deserve them. All your hard work paid off.

[LPC]

I add my heartiest congratulations. Cambridge is of course very prestigious and has extremely demanding standards. I'm sure that Anna will meet them. Mathematics is traditionally a very hard subject at degree level, but if she is so motivated she will do well.

Warmest best wishes to her!

[Cibach]

Thank you all for your good wishes. Anna has now received the conditions of the offer and they are very "steep". The A level grades required are well within her reach, but the additional exams are always Horrors, but, if she is really determined, they are not unattainable, so who knows we may yet have a Cambridge undergraduate in the family!!