![Simon Henderson's Eton College is setting up the free schools with Star Academies](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/08/21/TELEMMGLPICT000168567822_16926451472040_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqbwksUj7snnXibl13bvsdq0CoMCsvojaTezdcrydma44.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Eton to open state sixth-forms for young people from deprived areas
Simon Henderson vows to tackle regional variation in those who win places as he prepares to open new free schools with Star Academies
![Simon Henderson's Eton College is setting up the free schools with Star Academies](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/08/21/TELEMMGLPICT000168567822_16926451472040_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqbwksUj7snnXibl13bvsdq0CoMCsvojaTezdcrydma44.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Eton’s headmaster has vowed to help close the North-South divide in Oxbridge admissions as he prepares to open three state schools.
On Tuesday, the famous public school will announce that it has been given the green light by the Department for Education to establish selective state sixth-forms in Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham.
The colleges will recruit young people from deprived areas in the Black Country, Teesside, and northern Greater Manchester, giving them an Etonian-style rigorous and rounded education with the aim of getting them into the best universities.
Over the last five years, only two of the 40 schools with the highest number of pupils receiving offers from Oxford or Cambridge were located outside the South of England.
Eton College is setting up the free schools with Star Academies, a top-performing academy trust run by Sir Mufti Hamid Patel.
‘Inequality of opportunity and outcome’
Writing exclusively in The Telegraph, Simon Henderson, the headmaster of Eton, and Sir Mufti said that the regional divide in pupils winning Oxbridge places “cannot be right”.
They said: “Such inequality of opportunity and outcome cannot be right and it is an inequality that has only been exacerbated by the Covid pandemic.”
The partnership is aiming to help address how pupils get good GCSEs in the North of England and the West Midlands, but fail to convert those results into top university places.
“We think we can help close that gap and support these talented students to maximise their potential,” they said.
“All these areas have large and growing populations, where the demographics show that additional sixth-form places will be needed over the next decade in any event.”
Eton will contribute around £3 million a year, on top of government funding, so the schools can offer similar academic and co-curricular opportunities available to boys at the Berkshire boarding school.
Pupils will benefit from teaching by subject specialists, access to talks, academic essay prizes and debate clubs, and Oxbridge-style tutorials. Pupils will also have the opportunity to attend Eton annually for a summer school.
Each college will admit 240 pupils per year. The partnership plans to accept large numbers of pupils on free school meals, children in care, and pupils from disadvantaged postcodes, or those who would be the first in their families to attend university.
A spokesman for the partnership said: “The aim is that most of the students will have the ability to be able to aspire to top-tier or Russell Group universities, and this will be reflected in the GCSE results that they will need for admission.”
It has not been confirmed when the colleges will open.
Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham were chosen because they are towns where more than a third of young people achieve five good passes at GCSE, but where fewer than 10 per cent convert these into the kind of A-level grades needed for places at top third of UK universities.
Eton, founded by Henry VI in 1440, is known for its pupils’ tailcoats and numerous alumni who have become prime ministers. The school charges annual fees of almost £50,000.
Over the past five years, 413 of its pupils have won Oxbridge offers – the third highest of any UK school, according to Telegraph analysis. It was beaten only by Westminster School, an independent school in London, and Hills Road Sixth Form College, a selective state college in Cambridge.
The only schools outside of the South of England to make the top 40 list for Oxbridge offers were Manchester Grammar School, an independent school for boys, and Greenhead College, a state-funded college in Huddersfield.
The Department for Education has approved 15 new free schools, which includes the three Eton Star sixth forms, in parts of the country where education outcomes are weakest. It said about 12,000 young people will benefit.
Prof Irene Tracey, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, said: “Oxford University is actively working to recruit more students from outside London and the South East, and warmly welcomes this initiative as we hope it will support our own outreach work to attract further students from such regions.
“The issue is not a lack of talented students, but rather sufficient opportunities for them to reach their full potential, and we very much hope that these three colleges will be a contribution to providing that need.”