Oxbridge success indeed has fallen

There I found that in those 14 years, 54 boys went from Elizabeth College to Oxbridge. That equates to 3.9 per annum. Over the years 1983-1987, the average number in College Sixth Form was 112.6.

Online I struggled unsuccessfully to find the number in sixth form at Brampton Manor School in 2020 and 2019, but in their 2018 Ofsted report the figure given was 584, with just 20 moving on to Oxbridge that year.

Based on that performance, if their sixth form had been only 112.6 in number, like ours, they would have achieved 3.9 pupils moving to Oxbridge. Identical to Elizabeth College all those years ago! Yet people are euphoric today about the performance of Brampton Manor’s highly selective and oversubscribed sixth form, while Elizabeth College was doing just as well then as Brampton Manor is now!

Next our attention is drawn to Brampton Manor’s performance in 2019 and 2020, when they gained 41 and 51 Oxbridge places respectively. Naturally, we wonder which philosopher’s stone transformed their earlier base into gold, thus doubling their 2018 success in 2019. What did they do to deserve that? Did they have a bigger sixth form, i.e. double the size? Sadly their website doesn’t tell us the size of their 2019 sixth form, nor that of their 2020 one either, so we have to rely on the 2018 figure.

One can argue that we all have our ‘fat’ years and our ‘lean’ years. For example, in 1981, 10 members of the Elizabeth College Sixth Form left to enter Oxbridge! Scaling that Elizabeth College figure up by relative size of sixth form predicts 51.86 for Brampton Manor School, i.e. rather better than their actual figure of 51 for 2020! Thus, in 1981 Elizabeth College, by itself, did a little better then than Brampton Manor in 2020.

However, as Deputy Richard Graham points out, over the last five years all of Guernsey’s sixth formers, independent and maintained sectors combined, achieved only three Oxbridge places per annum! So we have a serious problem.

I have long been of the opinion that one could run a good school in a tent, if absolutely necessary, provided that one could recruit and retain the best teachers to help. For those students who have an appetite and a potential for higher academic learning beyond secondary school, especially at Oxbridge, it is necessary to attract good teachers with degree-standard qualifications. In realistic terms we cannot expect to find a sufficient number of those graduates from within our island population. Moreover, we will not attract many from outside the island if we offer them only a five-year housing licence or similar.

What does attract well-qualified, good teachers to apply for appointment to any school is its reputation for excellence. It is a quality hard earned and easily lost.

RICHARD WHEADON

L’Enclos Gallienne,

Rue du Court Laurent,

Torteval,

Guernsey, GY8 0LH.