The London Academy of Excellence, Stratford (LAE) is a selective free school

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college located in the Stratford area of the

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, England. It has approximately 480 pupils and 32 teachers.

Background

The school first opened in 2012 in collaboration with seven independent schools - Brighton College,

Caterham School (Truth without Fear) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding school , religious_affiliation = Protestant ( United Reformed Church) , president = , head_label = Headmas ...

Eton College Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...

, City of London School,

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, Highgate School and University College School, six of which continue to support the school as 'partner schools'. Its close relationship with

has led to the school being dubbed 'the Eton of the East End' by the national media. LAE is a flagship of the government's academies programme. It was visited by

Michael Gove Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Par ...

in February 2014, who called it a "superb new free school". As well as state funding, the school receives a grant annually from

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and other corporate donors, and thus is able to offer sports and recreation activities, clubs, societies, a lecture programme and an outreach program to complement academic studies. The school offers an academic A-Level curriculum designed to facilitate student's entry on to competitive degree courses at leading universities. Conditional offers of places are made on the basis of student's predicted GCSE results. For 2018 entry, students require a minimum of 5 GCSE 7-9 grades, including a minimum of grade 6 in Mathematics and either English Language or English Literature. In 2015, the Sunday Times awarded the school with the title of 'The Sunday Times Sixth-form College of The Year'. It was the first free school to be named the best sixth form in the country". In 2016 eight students gained offers from

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and the

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, receiving much national media attention. In June 2022 the school was short listed in the top 10 schools for the World's Best School Prize in the category of 'Supporting Healthy Living' in recognition of the extensive wellbeing offer in the school.

Results

The school was inspected in October 2017 and was awarded “outstanding” in all areas. In 2019, LAE achieved record results with 65% of all A-Levels grades A*/A, and 93% A*-B. More than 850 LAE students have taken up places at Russell Group universities since the first cohort left in 2014, 67 attended Oxford and Cambridge, and 95 have embarked on highly competitive medicine, veterinary medicine and dentistry courses.

Controversies

In 2022, an online campaign was launched by a small group of LAE alumni requesting the reintroduction of the prayer space. A small group of LAE alumni working with Cage UK, MEND and

Azad Ali Azad Ali is a British activist and a spokesman for the Islamic Forum of Europe. He was founding chair of the Muslim Safety Forum, is Vice-Chair of Unite Against Fascism (UAF), and former director of engagement at Muslim Engagement and Development ...

list a number of allegations against the school in their campaign, that the school released a statement refuting. In March 2022 the school appointed an external investigator to investigate the complaints. The investigation report concludes that there is no evidence that the LAE or any of its staff, either past or serving, discriminated against Muslim students and finds that the School’s Governing Board acted appropriately and transparently in its decision to discontinue multi-faith facilities at LAE in September 2015. The School has sponsored provision for prayer at a community facility a few moments’ walk from its building since January of this year, prior to receiving the complaints from alumni.

References

{{authority control Sixth form colleges in London Education in the London Borough of Newham Educational institutions established in 2012 Free schools in London 2012 establishments in England