Fifty-five students at Brampton Manor Academy in Newham, East London, have received offers to study at Oxford or Cambridge from this October, compared to 48 students receiving offers at Eton College.

This marks the first time that a London-based state school has received more Oxbridge offers than Eton College, the £42,500-a-year boarding school in Windsor which has produced twenty British Prime Ministers.

According to the Telegraph, two thirds of pupils at Brampton Manor Academy are eligible for free school meals. Newham is one of the poorest London boroughs, with 52% of children judged to be in households in poverty according to one charity, compared to the 38% average for London boroughs.

This year’s achievement sees the Academy build on its success in recent years, having received 51 Oxbridge offers in 2020, and 41 in 2019.

Cambridge has committed to cutting the ratio of its students from the wealthiest parts of the country to those from the most deprived from around 14:1 to 6.7:1 by 2025. Meanwhile Oxford has committed to cutting this ratio from around 15:1 to 8:1 in the same time.

The announcement comes after other recent successes for Oxbridge outreach schemes, with Target Oxbridge helping 71 Black students gain 2021/22 offers, while student initiative Zero Gravity saw 151 low-income students secure offers this year.