My comprehensive secondary school in Northamptonshire was not what you might call aspirational. The intake was a mixture of middle and working class students, but the culture wasn’t very ambitious. 

I wanted to work hard and do well, but I was branded a “square” and a “swot”. On one occasion, I received a grade C for an assignment, instead of my usual A, and was mocked for being so upset by it. I couldn’t hide my disappointment.

While I was trying my hardest, many of the students at my school revelled in being disruptive. One time, some of them jumped on the desks and made monkey noises in class. Absolutely no learning could happen in lessons like these. 

For someone like me, who did want to excel, it was dispiriting and demoralising. It felt like a real battle not only to achieve, but also to be socially accepted for wanting to do so. I didn’t have a great group of friends and never really felt that I belonged there; I felt I had to hide who I was as a person, just to fit in.

I was nine when I decided I wanted to study at Cambridge. We went on a family day trip to the city and it was while I was walking around the Great Court of Trinity College that I had an overwhelming sensation that this was where I wanted to be one day.

But when I told one of my teachers that my goal was to go to Cambridge, he looked at me as if I had arrived from another planet. It was a typical response to my ambition. But I refused to let myself be deterred.

I learnt to hide my aspirations. My parents supported me (though my mum worried I worked too hard) but at school I didn’t feel I could talk about wanting to go to Cambridge, for fear of what others would think.

When the time came, I applied to study geography at Sidney Sussex College. I’d moved to a different comprehensive school for sixth form and the teachers tried to prepare me with a mock interview, but didn’t quite get it right. Unlike in the top private schools, they didn’t really understand how it all worked.

I realised then that if I was going to get to Cambridge, I’d have to work it all out for myself, including how to get the grades I needed: AAB. Ultimately, I got five As.