Industry News
Independent schools the 'best route' to a place at Oxbridge
Posted on 10th March 2008
According to research from the Sutton Trust, of the 30 schools that collectively supply a quarter of successful applicants to Oxford and Cambridge, 29 are private.
Some schools, such as Westminster, send as many as half of their pupils to the two elite universities, which far exceeds the rate of the average grammar school.
This has led the Financial Times to suggest that "if your heart is set on Oxbridge, you should reconcile yourself to paying fees".
It cites a number of reasons as to why this is the case, including intense selection at many private schools, the quality and range of teaching and the "atmosphere of high expectation" that often prevails.
The top-performing schools have stringent academic entrance requirements for students entering at age 11 and those hoping to go on to the sixth-form.
Once pupils have been accepted to study A-levels at a school like Westminster or St Paul's Girls' School, teachers then provide training in a range of critical thinking, research and presentation skills that is rarely available in the over-stretched state sector.
The decision by some private schools to offer the International Baccalaureate diploma or the Cambridge Pre-U as a replacement or addition to A-levels has also boosted their Oxbridge success rate.