Taliban victim Malala wins a place at Oxford

NOBEL Peace Prize-winning activist Malala Yousafzai yesterday told how she was “so excited” after gaining a place at the University of Oxford after passing her A-levels.

The 20-year-old, who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban, tweeted a screenshot of the confirmation that she will study philosophy, politics and economics.

Earlier this year, she told a conference she had received an offer, which was conditional on achieving three As at A-level. Meanwhile a brave 19-year-old student was celebrating yesterday after achieving three A*s at A-level – despite battling cancer during her studies.

Phoebe Pickering, from Brighton, gained her results in Latin, English literature and philosophy at Brighton College and will go on to study philosophy at Cambridge.

But the results came after a traumatic few years.

The teenager took a year off when she underwent the most intensive treatment to battle the soft tissue Ewing’s sarcoma of the returning to studies.

After receiving her results yesterday, she said: “I feel slightly in shock, it hasn’t really sunk in yet, I’m very excited.”

In a separate tale of great achievement, a genius schoolboy yesterday won a place at Eton after gaining an AS-level in Maths – aged just 11.

Thrilled maths prodigy Israel Adeboga managed to achieve a D despite being six years younger than others sitting the tough course.

The talented boy from kidney before finish off her Barking, east London, said: “I find maths is a game and learning as fun because of the way it is taught at the Excellence in Education programme and things are explained easily and you can never forget with EIE’s learning method. “I am happy to have passed all the school entrance exams.”

And a teenager who was given 78 detentions in one term was yesterday celebrating – after getting into a top university, having completely turned her life around.

Niama Evans, 18, labelled a “disruptive” was pupil and handed a staggering 78 detentions in just one term when she was younger.

From the age of five Miss Evans was told school would be an uphill battle for her and for a decade, her mother was forced to get her daughter help.

Aged 15 she was finally given an attention deficit disorder diagnosis and was given the support and understanding she desperately needed.

Now aged 18, Niama has been offered a place at Leeds University after achieving two A grades and a C in her A-levels.