95 per cent of students at school in one of the UK's most deprived areas win places at Russell Group universities

A remarkable 95 percent of students at a sixth form in one of the poorest parts of the country have won a place at a Russell Group University.

All students offered places at Newham Collegiate Sixth Form (the NCS), east London, secured the grades required to get them into the county's best universities, despite living in a community with among the highest child poverty rates in the UK.

Their students include nine leavers who have won places at either Oxford or Cambridge and one who has won a scholarship to MIT in the US.

A total of 39 offers have been given for either a medicine or dentistry course while five others will have their university fees paid for by top City firms KPMG or PWC.

A remarkable 88 per cent of students scored A*-B which would put the school among the top performing in the country and ahead of many grammar or independent schools.

The pass rate for A* - C was 99 per cent.

Headteacher Mouhssin Ismail, who gave up a six-figure salary as a City lawyer to become a teacher in his home borough of Newham, said: "With nine pupils winning places at either Oxford or Cambridge and a remarkable 95 per cent of students winning places at Russell Group Universities, these students have benefited from life changing opportunities.

"We share with our community a belief that our students with their limitless potential can compete with students at the top independent and grammar schools nationally. Today we have proved that.

"Our mission is to challenge the status quo, to challenge the belief that you have to be from a privileged background and go to an expensive school to access the best universities.

"I left my job as a lawyer in the City because I saw so much potential in my community. Potential that was going to waste.

"Only when our students leave here with the belief that anything is possible do we know that we have done our job."