Two siblings have credited their teachers in helping them gain places at a prestigious university and acting school .

Tommy Williams, 20, and Amanda, 18, of �Dagenham Avenue, Dagenham, attended Eastbury Comprehensive School in Barking.

High grades in GCSE and A-levels helped Tommy win a place at Oxford University studying economics and management, while Amanda is due to start at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, which made stars of Lauren Bacall and Grace Kelly.

Tommy feels strongly that opportunities in Barking and Dagenham are few and puts his success down to “a couple of good teachers in school who sort of helped plan things ahead”.

He says that his experience at Wadham College has been “great, the teaching in �Oxford is different. You get more attention from your tutors.”

Tommy is also a co-founder of a not-for-profit organisation called FlyingSmart which sends tutors into schools which aren’t doing well to work with under-achieving students.

He told the Post that he is determined to “make an �impact on the world” and wants to go into investment banking “because without finance a lot of things wouldn’t be able to happen”.

Amanda also passed her GCSEs with high grades. She said: “It’s �because of Eastbury School that I got into acting. The teachers were very supportive and they helped me a lot.”

Amanda, who has just �finished A-levels at Havering Sixth Form College, said she fell in love with acting at �Eastbury and Tommy also supported her in pursuing what can be a difficult �career.

“He was the one who actually really made me go for it,” she said. “He said I can be whatever I want to be but I need to make sure I am the best at it. So from that I just thought this is what I love. so I’m �doing it.”

She was thrilled to secure her place at the academy.

She added: “It was quite a long process to get into when I got a phone call to say I had been accepted, I was so proud of myself because only 30 per cent of foreign students actually get in. I can’t even explain the excitement I felt.”

Amanda says her future “remains limitless” and includes aiming “to become a Hollywood actress.”

* This article features as part of the Post campaign Choose Your Future.