Meeting the King to receive a royal award has been a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience for a former student at Springwood High School.

Camilo Cervantes and his family travelled to Sandringham at the weekend and met King Charles III when he was presented the Queen Elizabeth Award for Academic Excellence, the complete works of William Shakespeare.

Camilo is currently studying chemical engineering at Cambridge University having achieved outstanding A Level results at Springwood’s Sixth Form last year when he received four A*s, making him the year’s highest achiever.

“I felt nervous as I’ve not met someone with as much standing as the King before. We had a nice chat about my A Level exams and my course at Cambridge, as I go to the same college, Trinity, that he did,” said Camilo.

“We also talked about my ambitions as a future engineer and which sort of sectors I was thinking of going into,” he added.

Alongside Camilo on his special appointment was his mum Ivonne Torres Galvis, dad Juan Sebastian Cervantes, step-dad Marc Skeldon and younger brother Georger. Both his parents work in the field of Chemical engineering and have senior roles with international organisations.

Andy Johnson, Executive Head Teacher at Springwood was also at the presentation and said Camilo was very deserving of the award.

 "Camilo is an outstanding student and worked hard throughout his whole school career. I can think of no one more worthy of this prestigious award. Camilo and his family had a fantastic experience meeting King Charles. His father Juan, travelled all the way from Mexico to see his son receive his award from the King."

Camilo said that Cambridge was great fun as well as being challenging academically, which he expected, and he was enjoying his time at the world-renowned university.

“It was an amazing experience getting to receive my award from the King and this truly was a once in a lifetime experience. The King was very kind and really took his time with each group of people who were there,” said Camilo.