Lawyer turned head sees 95% of pupils to top UK universities

A HEADTEACHER who gave up his City lawyer salary to lead an inner-city school is set to send 95% of his pupils to the best universities in Britain.

Mouhssin Ismail left a promising career at global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright to become a teacher in his old neighbourhood of Newham in east London in 2009.

Following a meteoric rise through the ranks, he is now in charge of Newham Collegiate Sixth Form, where in his first year of results 190 of its 200 pupils have been offered places at elite Russell Group universities.

Of those, nine have been offered places at either Oxford or Cambridge and one student has been given an unconditional offer to study at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.

The sixth-form college serves one of the poorest areas of the country, with a large percentage of pupils from immigrant backgrounds.

“All they have to do now is get the results,” he said. “It sounds easy but believe me there has been a lot of hard work. Whatever happens, I am immensely proud of what they have achieved.

“For many of these students the idea of going to Oxford or Cambridge or Bath, Manchester or Bristol would have been inconceivable two years ago. Now it is within touching distance.”

He attributes the college’s success to being able to offer pupils the same opportunities they would get at top independent schools, such as work placements in leading firms, weekly Oxbridge tutorials with graduates and contacts across a range of professions.

“If you are a middle-class state school kid, you may get that at home. But a large number of our children will be the first in the families to go to university, so are at an even greater disadvantage.” – Daily Mail