Comment: We ought to lower the academic divide

In fact, of their 350 A-degree students, a phenomenal 330 have won areas at Russell Group universities.

The faculty, where by a vast majority of pupils are from ethnic minority backgrounds, in receipt of totally free college foods or will be the first in their relatives to attend university, arrived out ahead of Boris Johnson’s alma mater, exactly where 48 learners secured Oxbridge offers.

Brampton Manor has adopted an Oxbridge preparing programme and life up to its motto, “success via hard work and determination”. Its good results is further evidence that London state educational institutions are now some of the ideal in the nation and have been for some time.

Still some of the broader tendencies from yesterday’s A-degree success are relating to. Not quality inflation — this year’s cohort simply cannot be meaningfully compared with all those that sat tests. But the gaps concerning the rich and the disadvantaged. Private faculty learners observed the biggest increase in major grades.

In the meantime, Ofqual’s equalities assessment reveals that the prolonged-standing gaps indicating decrease results of black candidates, free of charge faculty meal candidates and candidates with a extremely higher amount of deprivation relative to their respective reference team all widened by approximately 1.4 proportion factors.

Exams, for all their effectively-publicised shortcomings, continue to be an equaliser. The true challenge is not no matter if we quality A-concentrations by a letter or quantity method, that is merely a distraction. Our aim ought to as an alternative be on lowering educational disparities, exacerbated by residence understanding and trainer assessment.

And a new secretary of point out, a person with a enthusiasm for education and learning and in possession of some of Brampton Manor’s effort and hard work and resolve, ought to be a important very first stage.