A high-achieving East London state school in one of the capital’s poorest boroughs broke its own record today after 150 students achieved straight A* grades at A-level.
Brampton Manor Academy had 349 pupils get either an A* or A in all their subjects, and 50 of them will now be going to Oxford or Cambridge universities. Over 90 per cent of the cohort are heading to one of the 24 leading Russell Group institutions.
The school in Newham now sends more students to Oxbridge than Eton College, with more than 400 going in the 12 years since it opened its sixth form in 2012.
And Brampton Manor is now the world’s top school for Oxbridge entry, having sent 85 pupils to the prestigious universities in 2022, up from 57 in 2021 and 53 in 2020.
Many of the high achievers at the school are from ethnic minority backgrounds, in receipt of free school meals or will be their family’s first to attend university.
Among this year’s top achievers were two boys who both scored four A*s and will study computer science – with Arik going to Cambridge and Owen heading to UCL.
The school’s executive principal Dayo Olukoshi told today: ‘I am very delighted with the incredible achievement of our students and the high number progressing to Oxbridge this year. These students combine exceptional academic ability with an exemplary work ethic.
‘I am very proud of them and indeed our entire cohort of Year 13 students, who have remained focused – despite the many challenges and obstacles in their way – and have been rewarded with offers from the country’s most prestigious universities.’
In a series of tweets today, the school said: ‘Massive congratulations to the class of 2024. It’s all smiles here at Brampton Manor as our students celebrate record A level results. Over 300 students achieved straight A*/A grades.’
It later added: ‘Our class of 2024 have set a new record at Brampton Manor: 150 students achieved straight A* grades at A level! Wow, what a bunch of talented students. Massive congrats to you all.’
The school also said that Brampton Manor students ‘demonstrate year after year that success can be achieved through effort and determination’.
It added: ‘We are immensely proud of each of you and wish you all the very best as you embark on the next stage of your journey. Keep in mind our school motto: success through effort and determination.’
The school is unsurprisingly rated outstanding by Ofsted and Dr Dayo was given an OBE in 2016 for services to education.
More than 2,000 pupils attend Brampton Manor, which has a traditional academic approach to learning and a no-nonsense stance on behaviour.
In 2023, 70 per cent of all GCSE results were graded at 5+, which was 16 percentage points above the local authority average.
Eton, which costs £52,749 a year to attend after a £3,200 ‘acceptance fee’, has not yet revealed its A-level results for this year.
Overall, national figures showed that that the proportion of A-level entries awarded top grades is up on last year and remains above pre-pandemic levels.
Hundreds of thousands of students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their exam results today in a year when grading was expected to be restored to 2019 levels in all three nations.
More than a quarter (27.8 per cent) of UK entries were awarded an A or A* grade, up by 0.6 percentage points on last year when 27.2 per cent achieved the top grades.
This was also higher than in 2019 – the last year that summer exams were taken before the pandemic – when 25.4 per cent of entries were awarded A or A* grades.
Overall, the proportion of UK entries awarded the top A* grade this year has risen by 0.4 percentage points to 9.3 per cent, compared with 8.9 per cent in 2023, and it is higher than when it stood at 7.7 per cent in 2019.
Excluding 2020-2022, the years of the pandemic, this is the highest proportion of A* grades awarded since they were first handed out in 2010.
But the overall pass rate – the proportion of entries graded A* to E – has fallen to 97.2 per cent this year, which is lower than last year (97.3 per cent) and the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (97.6 per cent).