Tamsin Newlove, who attended Bitterne Park school before studying chemistry, physics and further maths at Barton Peveril, has been placed in the top 0.7% of 8481 teenagers who completed this year’s Cambridge Chemistry Challenge.

A score of 77% in a tough science challenge earned Tamsin a coveted place at a residential summer school and a Roentgenium Award from the University of Cambridge.

One of the youngest students in her year, Tamsin had Maths A-level and a string of top GCSEs under her belt at the age of 15.  

Now her sights are set on a place to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge when she leaves college next year.

Commenting on her success Tamsin said: “I am pleased with my result in the challenge and the residential was really great.

"It was good to meet other people who are really interested in chemistry and be able to apply techniques learned at college to topics I hadn’t come across before.”