A school has thanked its students for the amazing “resilience and determination” they showed during the pandemic after they secured more Oxbridge offers than Eton College.
Sam Dobin, director of sixth form at Brampton Manor Academy in East Ham, said the “atmosphere was absolutely buzzing” at the school after 55 pupils received offers to study at Oxford or Cambridge in September.
The 42,500-a-year Eton, which has educated 20 prime ministers and princes William and Harry, received 48.
Mr Dobin said: “We focus on having very high standards and not letting students be distracted. They have shown amazing resilience and determination this year. We did need laptop grants and things at the beginning of the pandemic, but where there is a will there is a way.
"There is no secret other than the exceptional hard work they put in. The atmosphere in the school is absolutely buzzing. Students in the years below can see that and it makes them aspire to the same level of success.”
Brampton Manor has 580 sixth form pupils and all of those studying A-levels this year have been offered a university place.
More than half of pupils at the school qualify for free school meals and the majority are from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Newham, which has one of the highest levels of child poverty in the UK, has also been one of the areas worst hit by the pandemic.
Chloe Wills, who is eligible for free school meals, was offered a place to study natural sciences at Cambridge University.
She said: “An important part of applying to top universities is believing that you actually have a chance, which Brampton reassures you of from the beginning.”
The school is not the only one in the borough celebrating university offers.
Newham Collegiate Sixth Form, East Ham, has more than 90 per cent of its students going to Russell Group universities.
More than 50 will be going on to study medicine and several are expected to land places at America’s most prestigious universities.
Headmaster Mouhssin Ismail said: “I think it comes down to the high aspirations of our students. We show them there is no barriers to what they can achieve if they work hard, no matter what their background.”
Five Forest Gate Community School students have won full scholarships to top fee paying private schools to study A-levels.
Students won places to Chigwell, City of London and Eton.
Dhruv Parmar, 16, will be studying maths, further maths, economics and history at City of London in September.
He said: “I’m very excited. This year has been really difficult with studying from home and the pandemic. The school and my parents have been extremely supportive. We are just down the road from Canary Wharf and think I want to go into some kind of banking or finance career. My dad works there at the moment, but he’s in Waitrose.”
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