University of Cambridge student says his success is due to a pupil referral unit

A student at the University of Cambridge says his success is down to the four years he spent at a pupil referral unit (PRU).

George Baldock left mainstream education in Milton Keynes at the age of 11 due to anxiety and depression.

The 18-year-old has just started a history and politics degree at Trinity College.

Here, in his own words, he talks about his unusual journey to the prestigious institution.

I've always been nervous. When I was two, my mum took me to the doctor because she had never seen me laugh.

In primary school, it was less of an issue but it was at the switch of going to secondary school that it became wholly unmanageable for me.

Any time I spoke to anyone my legs turned to jelly and a stone dropped in my stomach. It was a deep anxiety. It was indescribable and impossible to pinpoint why.

At the age of 11 school just became impossible for me. At first people thought I was being a bit wimpy or that I just wanted the day off school.

My anxiety became so bad that it was making me physically ill - I could not cope whatsoever. By Christmas of year seven I had been moved into an internal exclusion unit at the school, alongside pupils with poor behaviour.

It was disastrous, I could not cope in a normal classroom and now I was in a room with really badly behaved, disruptive children.

In 2017, I dropped out of school from January to September. I just could not face going.

My mum is fantastic, she had to look after me and she spent a lot of time at home with me and set up her own business making hair bows.

I was given a place at a PRU [pupil referral unit] at the start of year eight. I hated the idea of going to the unit, the Bridge Academy West in Bletchley. The thought was stomach turning.

My mum and her partner, from a loving and caring point of view but holding a [metaphorical] pitchfork, stood behind me and made me do it.

They basically said "sit down, shut up and go" and that was the right thing. I was tremendously nervous but I quickly found it was the right place for me.

It took a while and with an anxiety disorder you are never fully comfortable and there were days when I found it very hard but it got much better for me very quickly.

The unit was tiny, there were 15 students there, and you could get so much attention from the teachers.

My history teacher Dr Neil Barrett, who was also the principal, taught me one-on-one for four years in his office. All of my teachers were wonderful.

The perception of a PRU is that it is full of naughty kids, but lots of children there were like me and had mental health issues.

I was 14 when I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, while I was still at the PRU, and the unit taught me techniques to relax and clear my head.

I sat my GCSEs there and went back to my old secondary school for my A-levels which was really more necessity than choice because the unit only goes up to GCSEs.

The system is held together with cobwebs and a bit of loose change - it is so poorly resourced, but the teachers went over and above to help me.

I was very upset to leave. They get to know you so well but they helped prepare me to be ready to deal with returning to my old school where I managed to get an A* in all of my A-levels and full marks in history.

The values my mum has taught me are that you need to push yourself and just do it and she convinced me to apply to Cambridge. When I told her I had got in she cried.

I'm in this place where all these great people studied and now it is me, the write-off from a Milton Keynes pupil referral unit, and it is just the most tremendous thing.

I used to make up that I had gone to a school somewhere else but I would forget the name... now I'm just honest about it.

There is no chance I would be at Cambridge without the fantastic teaching I received at the PRU.

I really worry about the people who could be here, but they aren't because they haven't had access to a unit. A lot of people are being let down by the system.

I do not want to be defined by having gone to a PRU, but it is a big part of me. It's not something I am ashamed of - I am very grateful for my time there and I owe my success to going there.

I still feel like a tourist here in Cambridge - it is the most beautiful city and I am shrunken by the absolute grandeur of the place.

I have been given this amazing opportunity in my life and if I can do anything to get another person through the system, that is all I hope for.

As told to Charlie Jones

BBC News has contacted the Department for Education for comment.

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