THE New Year got off to a great start for four York pupils who learned they could be heading for the country's top universities.

Three students from Bootham School have been offered places at Cambridge and another offered a place at Oxford.

Fiona Jardine, Mathieu Flinders and Adam Drury who could be heading for Cambridge later in the year, and Alastair Knowles, who has been offered a place at Oxford, learned of the news over the Christmas holidays.

Headmaster Ian Small said he was particularly pleased at the range of subjects the students would be studying, which included law, natural sciences, geography and music.

He said: "We are still waiting for some results to come through, but for these four young people it is congratulations all round."

Updated: 10:39 Wednesday, January 08, 2003