Talented Tasneem Khan is a role model for younger students at her 'failing' school - and the darling of her teachers - after landing a place at Cambridge University.

The 18-year-old achieved top grades in all her A-levels and will swap Carlton Bolling College in Undercliffe for New Hall, Cambridge, to study medicine.

The daughter of a retired bus driver, Tasneem, pictured, is the first in her family to go to university.

School chiefs are delighted and say she is the first Muslim girl from Carlton Bolling to get into Oxbridge.

Deputy head Paul Wright said she was proof real achievement was taking place at the college, despite its 'Special Measures' status. It failed its Ofsted inspection last year.

"The message is that people here can achieve. Tasneem and others have proved it. It's a welcome message at a time the school is in Special Measures," he said.

Tasneem, the eldest of three sisters, said she had been encouraged by her teachers at Carlton Bolling to walk tall and this had helped get her through the tough selection process. There were five applicants chasing each of the ten places to read medicine at New Hall.

"I had a lot of support from teachers at school before my interview," she said. "One said 'Don't think that you need these people. Think that these people need you. Imagine yourself studying there.' I found I could imagine it and that's why I think my interview was successful.

"It's a beautiful place and walking around the halls and fields, I really felt at home there."

Tutors at New Hall spotted her potential and offered her a place, on condition she achieved A grades in her science subjects.

"It was a lot of hard work and I didn't think I'd make it, especially with the last few exams I did," said a shell-shocked Tasneem, clutching her precious certificate from the AQA exam board.

Neither of her parents, Mohammed Ayub Khan, a retired bus driver with First in Bradford, or mother Maryam, a housewife, have been to university - although younger sisters Henna and Habiba could well follow in her footsteps.

Proud dad Mohammed said: "I'm delighted and very, very proud of her."

The 65-year-old, of Binnie Street, Barkerend, Bradford added: "She tried really hard for these results and my hopes are that she goes on to great things."

Younger students at Carlton Bolling also regard her as an inspiration.

Tasneem said: "I really couldn't have done it without the teachers here and all the help they have given me. I hope I can be a role model to younger students."

President of New Hall, and pro vice chancellor of the university, Anne Lonsdale, was on the interview panel and recalls asking Tasneem about her poetry writing and work for the school newspaper: she made a big impression.

"Very, very few students here come from comprehensives in Special Measures," she said. "I hope this is a real boost to the school, they are obviously doing a good job. We are delighted Tasneem is coming to us. She is a splendid person and is going to go far."