New figures show that QE pupils received more offers from Oxford and Cambridge universities than those at any other state secondary school last year.
Queen Elizabeth’s School is the top non-fee-paying school in a table published by The Spectator magazine, which shows QE’s 2022 figure of 34 offers outstripping other grammar and comprehensive schools nationwide.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It is always good to receive independent corroboration of our success, and this news is a testament both to the dedication and professional expertise of our staff and to the sustained hard work of our very able students, who come from a wide range of backgrounds. Our Sixth Form team are highly experienced at guiding pupils who aspire to places at the world’s leading universities and on very competitive courses, such as Medicine.
“It is also encouraging to note that, with our 2023 Oxbridge offer total having jumped to a record 47 [pictured top], we may now even have stretched our lead in this, our 450th anniversary year.
“I should add that these offers are secured by boys who are usually heavily involved in the wider life of the School: in sport, music, drama, and other extra-curricular opportunities, and also in our volunteering programme, in mentoring younger pupils, and in serving as prefects. Our focus is not merely on examination results – important though those are – but on fulfilling our School mission to produce young men who are ‘confident, able and responsible’.”
The Spectator’s table is based on figures released by the two universities in the 2022 UCAS application cycle. It ranks 80 state schools, independent schools and sixth form colleges by the number of places secured.
QE is in 11th place, ahead of 25 other grammar schools and three schools described as comprehensives or academies. The top ten places are taken by independent schools and sixth form colleges. First place in the table goes to Brampton Manor Academy in Newham – listed by The Spectator as a sixth form college.
QE’s figure of 34 offers means that very nearly a third (32.7%) of the 107 boys who applied last year were successful. This conversion rate outstrips all the sixth form colleges (many of which also have far larger Year 12 and Year 13 rolls than QE), and all but two of the independent schools in the table’s top ten.
Oxford and Cambridge have increased the proportion of acceptances from state schools in recent years. It is now 69 per cent, up from 52 per cent in 2000.