Can private school's 'free sixth form' help widen university access?
Just five schools in England sent more pupils to Oxford and Cambridge over three years than nearly 2,000 others combined, researchers have found. The Sutton Trust charity has published, for the first time, school-by-school data on entry to higher education.
BBC analysis of the data showed that private schools often get more pupils into selective universities than state ones with similar A-level results.
One school, in the deprived East London borough of Newham, is trying to change those statistics. Kingsford has had an arrangement with the prestigious independent school Brighton College for five years.
Every year three of the top Kingsford students win scholarships to Brighton's sixth form. Now the two schools want to expand the scheme by setting up a "free sixth form" for children with at least 5 grade A GCSEs, and targeted at children who come from a family with an income below £26,000.
Free schools are at the heart of the government's education polices to allow parents in the state sector the same choices as those who pay for independent education.
Tosin Teriba was one of the first Kingsford Scholars. Now she is back at her old school mentoring the next generation and helping to make the new sixth form a reality for Newham's brightest hopes.
There will be a special report on education and social mobility on The World Tonight, BBC Radio 4, Friday 8th July at 2200.
08 Jul 2011
- From the section Education & Family