A record number of Manx students have been offered places at the UK’s most elite universities thanks to an all-island programme and an unprecedented community effort, writes Dave Kneale.

In a breakthrough for the Isle of Man, nine students from the island’s state secondary schools have been offered places at Oxford and Cambridge universities for 2021, subject to the results of their final assessments.

With four offers from Oxford and two from Cambridge, the school with the biggest cause for celebration is Ballakermeen High School.

’We’ve got six kids into Oxbridge this year, which is more than we’ve had in 25 years,’ head of sixth form Richard Karran told the Examiner.

He chairs an informal ’Oxbridge Group’ of teachers and education professionals from the island’s five state secondary schools. They joined forces last year to help students conquer some of the toughest admissions processes in higher education.

’We’re trying to make Manx people believe that they can do anything they want to do, and we’re getting an organised programme in place to help make that happen,’ he said.

Recruitment for the world’s top universities isn’t for the faint-hearted. Oxford University requires an entrance exam and a notorious face-to-face interview, and only one in four of those who reach the interview stage is successful. Yet nine out of 12 island students interviewed received an offer from either Oxford or Cambridge.

Recruitment in the island has been well below the UK national average for decades. A programme aiming to improve things began four years ago when John Danielson, then head of sixth form at Castle Rushen, took the initiative and approached St Peter’s College, Oxford. The college’s outreach officer went on to forge direct links with all five of the island’s secondary schools.

Stuart Curran, head of sixth form at Ramsey Grammar School, said: ’We’d had sporadic success over the years with exceptional students. But creating that bridge changed things dramatically for us, even though we didn’t get any students accepted in that early stage.’

Mr Karran said: ’The message from Oxford was simple, "your kids are great, your top-end kids are incredible, your A-level results are competing with some of the best state school sixth forms in England. So why are you not getting more people into Oxford?".’

The answer was a mixture of aspiration, preparation and systems.

’It’s been a long process of raising the aspirations of the students in our school,’ he continued. ’"Balla kids don’t go to Oxford", was what I kept hearing. We knew we had to change that.’

Each school was encouraged to start their own programme. The first group of 15 Ballakermeen students met every week, read articles about current affairs, were assigned mentors in their subject area, attended Oxford University lectures online, faced rigorous interview preparation and were encouraged to read as widely as possible.

Things moved up a level last year with the creation of the all-island Oxbridge Group.

’It’s a much more collaborative process than we’ve seen before,’ Mr Karran said. ’Ironically the way to do that is to give ownership to each school and then get together to share best practice.’

The highlight of the combined programme was a mock Oxford interview day in November, in which 30 prospective Oxbridge students were grilled by leading island figures in business, politics and industry.

Among the guest interviewers were education minister Dr Alex Allinson and Lieutenant Governor Sir Richard Gozney, whose two interviewees would both receive an offer from Oxford University.

Then there was the small matter of the real interviews, conducted remotely due to Covid-19.

’Some of these kids are the brightest I’ve ever taught and it pushed them to the very edge of their ability,’ Mr Karran said. ’They all came out completely frazzled. One of the lads walked into my room, swore a few times and walked out. And he got an offer!’

Four Ballakermeen students came away with offers from Oxford and two from Cambridge.

’I come from an outstanding school in England which has never, ever, had six in a year,’ Mr Karran said. ’It’s a really big result and the beauty of it is that it also involved the community. The kids said to me what a big difference it made to have the mock interview day.’

The more systemised approach also revealed some hidden barriers to admission. Recruitment at top universities has a political edge, with institutions gathering information on an applicant’s local area known as contextual data.

But no such information existed for the Isle of Man until Mr Karran prepared his own file, with the support of the Department for Education.

’For the last 20 years island-based kids have been applying to Oxford with no contextual data to back them up,’ he said. ’That might be one of the reasons why we have had more success this year.’

A island-wide dossier, available for use by every school and applicant, is now in the works.

With the success of the Oxbridge Group, new inter-school working groups are being set up for subjects as diverse as teacher training, law and medicine.

’The goal is for the Isle of Man to be seen as a centre of excellence in all these areas,’ Mr Curran said.

This year’s Oxbridge group is already at work preparing for entrance exams in October and possible interviews in December. Mr Karran added that students are not selected by their teachers - they decide for themselves if they want to take on the challenge.

’It’s not that an Oxbridge kid is necessarily more intelligent, it’s that they’re willing to learn to think in a different way. If our students are willing to do that, they’ve got a chance,’ he said.

’The talent has always been there. Now the systems are in place to ensure that aspiration is rewarded, not just individual brilliance.

’We’ve got kids believing that they can do it.’