JCoSS, the cross-communal Jewish secondary school in Barnet, is celebrating a record number of 13 Oxbridge offers for sixth form pupils, more than double the offers it received from Oxford and Cambridge Universities last year.
Around ten per cent of the relevant year group at JCoSS have been offered an Oxbridge place, in courses ranging from natural sciences, engineering, maths, music, law and philosophy, if they get the right A-level grades this summer.
Last year four of the six JCoSS pupils offered a place at Oxford and Cambridge successfully secured it; the previous year, two pupils were successful.
The school, which opened in 2010 and opened a sixth form two years later, attributes the increased offers to its revamped scholars’ programme designed for potential applicants to Oxbridge or medical school.
Patrick Moriarty, the school’s headteacher, said the programme had “continued to evolve since the sixth form began at JCoSS, and we are delighted that this excellent programme has contributed to the success of a significant number of our students.
“Thirteen offers in one year is an amazing achievement and is down to the sheer hard work and determination of our students and teachers.”
The enrichment programme, led by Adam Boxer, offers interview preparation, talks from admissions tutors and weekly student meetings to develop their “super-curricular” portfolios, which record their research and reading beyond their standard A-level syllabus.
Mr Boxer said he was “thrilled by the achievements of our students this year and that they have been rewarded for the astonishingly large amount of work and preparation which they undertook.”
The school said the overwhelming majority of university applicants have received offers from their chosen institutions, including the Russell Group of leading universities such as Durham, Warwick, Bristol, Imperial College London and University College London and in subjects that include law and medicine.