LAE

[Whyhaveibeencutoutofmamsnot]

Why does LAE keep saying how good they are at getting underprivileged kids into Oxbridge.
They only take students with 8 and 9 at GCSE given finance to have small classes and groomed for entrance exams and interviews.
Many of the students are from private schools just outside Newham (Chigwell, forest and Bancroft's) because of the bias towards state school students.
And no it is not sour grapes as mine are well past this stage of education just bored with it all.

I wouldn't say 'many' are from private schools. Some are, yes. My son goes there and he went to a (very low achieving) state school outside Newham. You are right that's it's very hard to get into from outside Newham and does require v high grades (as they allow so few) but the vast majority are from within Newham and haven't got those top grades. They take Newham students first with the required grades (still high but not unrealistic), and only if there are spaces is it extended.

My son only went there as he got in and his school didn't offer his favourite subject. I wasn't entirely sure about it, but he has made a much more diverse group of friends than he had where we live (which is mainly white working class) and I've been generally happy with the school. His friends all went to state schools.

There's more than one LAE. Lots of kids I know go to Tottenham and Stratford ones, all from state schools.

They are selective academically but a lot of 6th forms are. They obviously also encourage students to apply for Oxbridge and have good training on how to best apply. I would imagine that many of the children would get contextual offers based on postcode and where they took GCSEs.Tbh a lot of these children have achieved well to get 8s or 9s given their schools.

I think YABU to use the word "groomed".