Schoolgirl Maggie sets sights on Oxbridge or Harvard as family toast latest success A schoolgirl has followed in her older brother’s footsteps by becoming the top performer at her school as pupils received their GCSE results this week. Maggie Briggs, 16, secured seven 9s, including in biology, physics and chemistry, as well as English literature, English language and maths, plus an 8 and a 7 from All Saints Catholic High School in Kirkby . Maggie’s brother Bobby, who is now 19, also secured some of the school's highest ever GCSE results three years ago.
Maggie’s dad, Franny, told the Echo: “We’re over the moon. They [the school] didn’t think Maggie would do as well as she has. They said she couldn’t do triple science.
" He added: “Even more, they told us if a 10 [grade] was available, she would have got it.” Maggie now plans to go to Winstanley College for a year to study an Oxford & Cambridge programme, which prepares outstanding students to apply for one of the country's top universities. Maggie is even considering studies further afield.
“She’s talking about all different universities,” said Franny. “She’s even looking at ones in the States, and has mentioned Harvard, but she can go anywhere she wants, her options are open.” Maggie’s success is all the sweeter as her teachers were only predicting her to achieve 5s and 6s.
“She’s worked so hard; I’ve come downstairs at three in the morning and found her revising at the kitchen table and have to tell her to go to bed,” said Franny on how his daughter has defied expectations. “We’re over the moon.” Most pupils received their results at 10am, but the families of the top 10 performers were allowed to go in an hour earlier to get theirs.
Franny said: “We were crying. She wants to go into astrophysics, but honestly, she can do anything. She could be the Prime Minister!” The young Taylor Swift fan, who went to see the US singer at one of her Anfield concerts in June after her parents bought the tickets for her 15th birthday, was praised by her dad as "beautiful inside and out.
" He added: "Everyone calls her ‘Amazing Maggie,’ and she’s the nicest person you’ll ever meet." Maggie is also part of the Arriva Premiere Morris Dancers troupe and has a close-knit group of friends. Franny said: “Maggie’s friendship group all help each other and revised [for their exams] together.
They all help each other." Proving people wrong and excelling academically appears to run in the family. Brother Bobby defied doctors after being born 10 weeks prematurely, and Maggie’s mum, Jemma is a mature student, about to go into her second year at Liverpool University studying nursing.
“Similar to Maggie, she [Jemma] was told not to apply for Liverpool, but she got offers from there and from John Moores University,” Franny said. “As a family, we just prove everyone wrong.”.
