A record-breaking 19 pupils from a Canterbury grammar school have been offered a place at Oxford and Cambridge universities this year.

The huge number of Simon Langton Boys’ students being accepted to the UK’s top institutions is believed to be a new record for state schools in Kent.

Hailed as a “remarkable achievement” by proud head teacher Ken Moffat, 13 pupils have been accepted by Oxford and six by Cambridge.

Mr Moffat said: “It will be a record for state schools in Kent and possibly independent ones too - it’s an outstanding performance.”

Some of the pupils “specifically” joined the grammar to improve their Oxbridge chances, according to Mr Moffat.

“What is more remarkable is that the year group is the smallest we have had in the Sixth Form for about 15 years,” he added. “We attribute this success to our research philosophy of education which downgrades exam performance as the measured outcome of performance.

“Instead, we focus on a holistic educational process which seeks to take the individual as far as is possible to go intellectually.”

In total, 66% of the school’s university applicants are holding offers from the UK’s top 20 universities.

Mr Moffat says the success at Langton Boys’ flies in the face of a recent story run in The Times which stated those attending grammar schools are not more likely to secure a place at a top university. “Their data was based on people who were born in 1970, who are now 50 years old,” he said.

“I thought that was a rather ludicrous way of presenting a picture of the present.”

Last year at Barton Court Grammar School, three students were accepted to Cambridge. Simon Langton Girls says 11 of its students in the past two years have been offered places at Oxbridge.

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