A Lower Clapton school has been named as the highest performing non-selective comprehensive in London. 

Mossbourne Community Academy won the accolade in Parent Power, The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2023. 

Mossbourne became one of the first state schools to send more than a dozen sixth formers to Oxford and Cambridge, setting out to “re-imagine what inner-city, non selective education could be”.

Last year, 99 per cent of students secured a place at their first or second choice university.

School principal Rebecca Warren said:“Our very simple starting point is that we believe every child can succeed.

"Since 2004, Mossbourne Community Academy has stayed true to the simple belief that teaching and learning and the safety of pupils comes first. The pupils’ high outcomes, year on year, are due to an unwavering commitment to simple instruction, consistency, exceedingly high expectations and academic challenge.

“The challenge extends to staff who constantly welcome feedback and seek ways to improve practice. We do what we say we will do and will not allow our heads to be turned from academic achievement and care for the pupils. Our success is due to staff unity and a shared belief that our pupils have a right to follow - and be exposed to - aspirational pathways that are both appropriately matched to their skill set and are of their choosing."

She said pupils are "stimulated, encouraged, and exposed to learning outside of the curriculum", and that an emphasis is placed on "the importance of kindness and respect and how crucial it is that they feel safe and are happy".

“I am particularly proud of our Medical Bursary Programme which has led to 84 medics embarking on a career in medicine and has been extended from a Sixth Form initiative to a Year 7-11 programme called NHS Cadets," she said.

“In a similar vein, our Architecture and the Built Environment Bursary Programme now starts in Year 8 and has seen eight alumni enter a career pathway that they possibly would not have considered.

“I am most proud that our exceptional teaching and learning means that groups which underachieve nationally, for example disadvantaged pupils and Black Caribbean pupils, achieve significantly above the national average for all pupils, year on year.”