-level students who were downgraded by the controversial government algorithm are relieved after universities confirmed their places for this year. “I could not believe what I had read,” said Leah Glenday, of the message she received on Friday confirming her place at Girton College, Cambridge, after the anxiety of a week believing her dreams had been dashed. The first pupil from her school to be offered a place at Cambridge, and said to be the first looked-after child from the London borough of Haringey to receive an Oxbridge offer, Glenday said she was still in a dreamlike state and had not processed the fact she would form part of Girton’s class of 2020. “I ran over to my foster mum and started crying,” she said, remembering the moment she received the email confirming her place. “I couldn’t stop crying or talk, so I just showed her the phone. I had accepted the fact I wasn’t going there. That’s why I just cried because I had nothing else to say.” Glenday said she would not believe what had happened until she was at Cambridge on her first day. She hoped her story could serve as inspiration to other fostered children. “Children who have gone through a challenging upbringing can see themselves as unlucky, but they need to realise it can serve to their advantage,” she said. “It initiates your driving passion to pursue a certain cause and sticks us out from the crowd.” Glenday has plans to become a family law barrister, after her foster parents had to go to court to ensure her younger siblings could join Glenday and her sister in their home. She said: “During my GCSEs, when I found out I had a little brother and sister who were going to be adopted and I couldn’t ever see them, I was traumatised. “My foster parents went to court to bring them into my placement. If it wasn’t for the barrister saying I should write letters for her to read out in court, my family might not have been able to come together. So I just want to give back and help keep other families together.” Despite Gavin Williamson’s U-turn on Monday, thousands of children’s futures remain in the balance as universities – who had already allocated places on the basis of the grades calculated with the algorithm – assess whether they have extra space. Despite the joy of Glenday and others, some have been forced to defer for a year, while the status of some remains unknown. For Nina Bunting-Mitcham, who attended a state college in Peterborough, and received DDD under the now-ditched system despite scoring As and Bs in her mock exams, the past week was traumatising but ended in huge relief after the Royal Veterinary College accepted her to study veterinary medicine after the government’s volte-face. “I tried not to lose hope but it was hard,” she said. “Veterinary medicine was the only thing I wanted to do in life. I love animals more than people, to be honest.” Bunting-Mitcham, 18, told the schools minister, Nick Gibb, on live radio last Friday that he had ruined her life and, despite the change in policy – which came after he had spoken to teachers at her school about the algorithmic disparity – she remains bruised by the affair. “No government should put people through that trauma, it’s affected thousands of students’ confidence and self-belief,” she said. “I don’t think anybody in this age range will be voting for them after this. They’ve shown their incompetence once and for all.” It remains unclear whether she must undertake a foundation year before her five-year course.