‘East End Eton’ celebrates record year with nearly 90% of A-level students getting A* or A grades: State school in one of London’s poorest boroughs will send 85 pupils to Oxbridge this year
- Brampton Manor Academy in one of London’s poorest boroughs sees 430 students achieve straight A* or As
- 85 pupils secured places at Oxford or Cambridge universities – with 470 going to a Russell Group institution
- School in Newham has now sent nearly 300 students to Oxbridge in just a decade since it opened sixth form
- This year’s figure for Oxbridge of 85 was a significant rise on the 55 offers received in 2021 and 51 in 2020
A London state school in one of the capital’s poorest boroughs has seen an astonishing 430 students – nearly 90 per cent of its cohort – achieve straight A* or A grades in a stunning set of A-level results today.
Brampton Manor Academy also had 85 pupils secure places at Oxford or Cambridge universities after 89 offers were made, with 470 students or 95 per cent going to one of the leading Russell Group institutions across Britain.
The successful school in Newham, East London, has now sent nearly 300 students to Oxbridge in just a decade since it opened its sixth form in 2012 with the aim of getting more disadvantaged students into top institutions.
This year’s Oxbridge figure of 85 was a significant rise on the 55 offers received in 2021 and 51 in 2020 – and the sixth form also saw 58 per cent of its pupils’ grades awarded at A*, while 98 per cent were either A*, A or B.
Many of the high achievers at Brampton Manor – which has been billed as the East End’s rival to Eton – are from ethnic minority backgrounds, in receipt of free school meals or will be their family’s first to attend university.
Eton, which costs £46,296 a year to attend after a £3,200 acceptance fee, had just 48 offers from Oxford and Cambridge in 2021, which has halved down from 99 in 2014. Its Oxbridge figures for 2022 are not yet available.
Brampton Manor Academy student Daisy Agidi achieved A*A*A* and is off Gonville & Caius, Cambridge to study philosophy
Dominykas Antanaitis (left) is off to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge to study engineering after achieving three A* grades, while Gabriel (right) achieved one A* and two As and is off to Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
Priscillia Nazziwa has secured a place to study archaeology and anthropology at Oxford after achieving A*A*A today
A photograph of the Brampton Manor Academy ‘Class of 2022’ which was taken at their final assembly earlier this year
Dominykas Antanaitis, who is in receipt of free school meals and will be the first in his family to go to university, is off to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge to study engineering after achieving three A* grades.
Describing the moment he received the offer, he said ‘My heart stopped when I opened the email; it took me some time to realise I had actually got in. I called my Mum straight away and she was ecstatic.
Eton College vs Brampton Manor: How life at £46,000-a-year private school compares to high-flying state sixth form
SCHOOL ROUTINE
Brampton Manor: Pupils are expected to be in the Sixth Form Centre by 8.10am each morning and in form rooms by 8.15am.
The first of five hour-long lessons starts at 8.35am, with a short 20-minute break at 10.35am and 40 minutes for lunch.
The school day ends at 2.35pm but afterschool clubs run until 5pm.
Eton: Awake at 7.30am for breakfast before Chapel. Students then have three classes (known as schools) before break (known as Chambers).
They they have two more lessons before lunch at 1.15pm. After this, sport and activities take place. There are two more lessons before 6.15pm, when they have Quiet Hour working in their rooms until dinner at 7.30pm.
Students then divide into their houses for evening prayers at 8.20pm before bed each night at 9.30pm. Four lessons also take place on Saturday.
LUNCH MENU
Brampton: Lamb korma, hunter’s chicken and beef burger
Eton: Roast Dingley Dell pork, lamb kleftiko and Jamaican jerk chicken
SUBJECTS OFFERED
Brampton: Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, English Literature, Fine Art, French, Geography, German, History, Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physical Education, Physics, Politics, Psychology, Religious Studies, Sociology, Spanish
Eton: English Literature, Mathematics (Single or with Further Mathematics), Biology, Chemistry, Physics , Ancient History, Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, History (medieval, early modern or modern), History of Art, Geography, Design, Art , Music, Theology, Theatre Studies, Economics, Government and Politics, Music Technology, Computer Science
UNIFORM
Brampton: Boys must wear a plain, black, formal, business-like suit, with a black belt and Brampton Manor tie. Girls must also wear a suit, the suit skirt must match the jacket and be knee length.
Eton: Black tailcoat and waistcoat, false-collar and pinstriped trousers
FEES
Brampton: Free
Eton: £46,296 a year after £3,200 acceptance fee
‘I stay in school until 6pm most days to study because there is no space for me to work at home – I am so happy my hard work has paid off.’
Another high achiever is Mehnaz Mushafa, who is off to Oxford to study philosophy, politics and economics – and will also be the first in her family to go to university.
Speaking of the challenges of lockdown learning, she said ‘It was difficult not being with my peers, but the fact that we continued with our full timetable of live lessons online, still wearing school uniform with our cameras on really did help.
‘Throughout the lockdown I just keep remembering the end goal and why I came to Brampton’.
Priscillia Nazziwa, who has secured a place to study archaeology and anthropology at Oxford, says she had not even heard of the subject until she went to university taster sessions in Year 12.
Also the first in her family to go to university, Priscillia said that her parents were ‘overjoyed and emotional, and the news spread around my family very fast’.
Meanwhile a pupil called Gabriel – who achieved one A* and two As and is off to Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge – arrived in the UK aged ten and had to learn English from scratch.
He said: ‘Securing a place at Cambridge has genuinely made me believe that you can achieve anything you put your mind to as long as you persevere’.
The families of three students – Daisy Agidi, Saamiya Moallim and Azeez Shekoni – will see all three following in the footsteps of their older siblings, who are already studying at Oxbridge having completed their A-Levels at Brampton Manor.
Azeez, who will be going to Oxford to study medicine, will be joining his brother Harun there, who is studying philosophy, politics and economics.
He said: ‘Going to Oxford is something me and my brother had both dreamed about for a long time, so when I got my offer it was a special moment for me and my family.
‘Coming to Brampton taught me that everyone has the potential to achieve their goals regardless of their background with hard work and determination.’
The school’s executive principal Dr Dayo Olukoshi said today: ‘We are exceptionally proud of what our students have achieved.
‘They have shown incredible resilience and determination to ensure the disruption experienced over the past couple of years has not halted their path to success.
‘We passionately believe there is no limit to what our students can achieve with sufficient effort and determination.’
Overall, A-level grades for students across the UK have dropped from pandemic highs, but remain above 2019 levels, with girls still outperforming boys and geography pushing English literature out of the top ten most popular subjects.
Hundreds of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, who sat exams this summer for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, received their results this morning.
University admissions have also fallen on last year, but are the second highest on record, according to Ucas figures.
Grades had been expected to drop back from 2021 levels – when pupils were assessed by their teachers – as part of a transition year which saw marks aiming to reflect a midway point between last year and 2019.
(From left) Azeez Shekoni, Saamiya Moallim and Daisy Agidi will all be following in the footsteps of their older siblings, who are already at Oxbridge having completed their A-levels at Brampton Manor Academy in recent years
Pupils at Brampton Manor Academy were given 89 offers to study at Oxford or Cambridge universities earlier this year
Eton, which costs £46,296 a year to attend after a £3,200 acceptance fee, had 48 offers from Oxford and Cambridge in 2021
The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) said the overall pass rate – the proportion of entries graded A* to E – fell by 1.1 percentage points from 99.5 per cent in 2021 to 98.4 per cent this year.
Charities’ concerns at regional and schools gaps for disadvantaged pupils
Social mobility charities have voiced concerns around the gap between the most and least disadvantaged A-level students and called for more to be done to address disparities.
The Sutton Trust said regional gaps are growing and the differences in levels of achievement at private schools compared with state schools and colleges are still above 2019 levels.
The charity said while 58 per cent of grades at private schools were A or above, the figure was 35 per cent at academy schools and 32 per cent at sixth forms.
While A-level entries awarded the top grades – A* and A – in London rose to 39 per cent from 26.9 per cent in 2019, in north-east England the figure was 30.8 per cent this year, up from 23 per cent in 2019.
Sir Peter Lampl, Sutton Trust and Education Endowment Foundation chairman, said: ‘It’s great to see that many disadvantaged youngsters are gaining a place at university, and that there is a slight narrowing of the gap between the most and least advantaged.
‘Universities have rightly prioritised widening participation in spite of an extremely competitive year. However, the gap is still wider than it was pre-pandemic, highlighting that there is more work to be done.
‘Today’s data also shows that there are regional disparities in attainment. The Government must work to ensure that students from all backgrounds, in all areas of the country, have the opportunity to succeed.’
Sarah Atkinson, chief executive of the Social Mobility Foundation, described the gap between independent and state schools as ‘pretty static’ as she voiced concerns around how results will look in 2023 as exam conditions return to normal.
Earlier this week, a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers had seen ‘virtually no change’ in two decades and the coronavirus pandemic had ‘significantly worsened overall outcomes’.
But this is up by 0.8 points from 97.6 per cent in the pre-pandemic year of 2019. Entries receiving the top grades of A* and A are down 8.4 points from 44.8 per cent last year to 36.4 per cent – but up 11.0 points on 25.4 per cent in 2019.
The figure for the highest grade, A*, is down year-on-year from 19.1 per cent to 14.6 per cent, but remains higher than in 2019 when it stood at 7.7 per cent.
And the proportion of entries graded A* to C dropped from 88.5 per cent in 2021 to 82.6 per cent this year, though it is up from 75.9 per cent in 2019.
The JCQ said there were 848,910 A-level entries in total, up year-on-year by 2.9 per cent, compared with an increase of 2.4 per cent in the 18-year-old population.
Also today, a leader in diversity and inclusion warned educational barriers after the pandemic mean there is no room for complacency in ensuring good representation of black students at Oxbridge.
The founder of the Target Oxbridge programme said that black Year 12 pupils had suffered increased levels of anxiety, having been disproportionately affected by the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak.
Naomi Kellman said there could be similar challenges for younger students hoping to attend the UK’s elite universities in coming years, having been through educational disruption and facing the knock-on effects.
Target Oxbridge said it has supported more than 350 students of black heritage to secure Oxbridge offers, ‘helping to transform the narrative about who belongs at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge’.
The programme, which is celebrating ten years in existence, said it is ‘pleased to have contributed to such a significant change’ in levels of representation at the two universities.
When the scheme was launched, black African and Caribbean students made up around 1 per cent of UK-based students attending Oxbridge, despite representing 5 per cent of the A-level population, Target Oxbridge said.
As of 2021, the figure for UK-domiciled black students accepted to Oxbridge had risen to 4 per cent, Target Oxbridge said, with almost a quarter (24 per cent) of the black students accepted to the two universities being alumni of the programme.
The number of UK undergraduates with black African or black Caribbean heritage admitted to Oxford has increased from 1.9 per cent in 2017 to 3.5 per cent last year, while Cambridge admitted 128 UK black undergraduates last year, compared with 26 in 2011.
Ms Kellman welcomed the advancements but said efforts must continue, especially in the next few years as the pandemic after-effects are still being felt.
She said there had been 60 offers for Target Oxbridge participants this year, compared with 74 last year.
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