A-level results day: London state school outperforms Eton with Oxbridge targets

10 August 2021, 14:09

An inner city state school has outperformed Eton in its Oxbridge targets, following the release of A-level results.

Brampton Manor Academy in Newham had 55 of their students get the grades needed to confirm their places at Oxbridge.

The school earned seven more places than Eton, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson studied, which had 48 students secure Oxbridge offers - a drop from 69 the previous year.

Sam Dobin, Brampton's sixth form director, said he was "delighted" that so many students were set to study at Oxford or Cambridge University.

Overall, 350 students took their A-levels at the east London school this year, with 330 getting into Russell Group universities.

Most students studying at the inner city state school are from ethnic minority backgrounds, receive free school meals, or will be the first in their family to go to university.

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Susan Hope, 18, from Dagenham, will be studying education at Cambridge with the aim of a career in child psychology.

"I did not want to apply (to Cambridge) because of the fear of me getting rejected, but coming here made me think 'If they can do it, then why can't I?'" she said.

"Coming from this area you do not see that many people going to university at all, but if you take that chance, work hard and you can achieve anything - that is what Brampton teaches us.

"I came here expecting to have to work hard, and I think that is just the work ethic the school instils in us.

"We are all willing to work for it and we are in a support system that just nudges us a bit further to achieve those dreams that we are all pretty much capable of."

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Ade Olugboji, 18, from Essex, got four A*s and intends to study maths and philosophy at Oxford.

"Brampton has a philosophy of hard work," he said.

"I started at 6am and left at 6pm.

"I knew there was going to be work but I did not understand the level until I got here.

"The thing is once I saw everyone else working so hard and so well, it did not seem that it (success) was impossible."

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Brampton Manor opened its sixth form in 2012, hoping to improve progression rates to Oxford, Cambridge and other elite Russell Group universities for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In 2014, just one Brampton student received an offer for Oxbridge, but it had risen to 51 by 2020.

The oversubscribed selective sixth form accepts 300 to 400 students a year, with some travelling as long as two hours each way to attend.