Public high schools in eastern London, England, are a hot topic because they have produced more students admitted to’Oxbridge’ (Oxford University and Cambridge University) than the best prestigious private’Eton College’.
The British Daily Daily Mail reported that 55 students at the Brampton Manor Academy in eastern London, England, had received offers from Oxford and Cambridge. This is the largest since the opening of the school, and 7 more than the prestigious Eaton College.
Eaton College is the UK’s best prestigious private high school with an annual tuition fee of 65 million won. On the other hand, the’Bramton Manor Academy’ public school is free of tuition.
In the UK, the final admission is decided in the main exam held at the end of the school year after tentatively admitted to the university with the preliminary exam scores in the 3rd year of high school. Most of the top-ranked students go to colleges with tentative admissions.
The reason this school became more popular is the background of the students. It is in Newham, the second most poverty borough in London, and one in five students at the school get free meals. In addition, 98% of all students are ethnic minorities such as African Americans and Asians, and more than two-thirds of them speak English as a second language, not their mother tongue.
Sonya, who plans to study human, social, and political science at Cambridge, said, “It is really amazing to receive an offer from Cambridge University. I am very happy to be the first in my family to go to college, and I look forward to life in the future.” said.
“Last year, it was difficult to study remotely,” said Harron Shecony, who intends to study politics, philosophy, and economics in Oxford. Still, he said, “I thought that I would grow up in a low-income single-parent family and be alone in school, but there are a lot of students in the environment similar to me, so they supported each other.”
The miracle story of a public school in a poor neighborhood goes back 13 years. Principal Dayo Olokosi, who joined the school, created a high school course in a school that only had middle school courses in 2012, and produced the first Cambridge admissions in 2014, two years later.
Since then, the number of people in’Oxbridge’ has reached 25 in 2018 and 55 this year.
In a past interview, he said, “Background from home environment cannot be an obstacle to academic achievement. Anyone can succeed if there is quality education, big dreams, and hard work.”
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