Fifty one pupils at Brampton Manor Academy are preparing for life at Oxford or Cambridge after receiving offers from the prestigious universities - a new school record.

The number of teenagers at the East Ham school to be offered a place at one of the Oxbridge institutions surpasses the 41 who received an offer last year.

Many of them are from ethnic minority backgrounds, will be the first in their family to attend university or are in receipt of free school meals - including Melissa Rybicki, who has an offer to study natural sciences at King's College, Cambridge.

She said: "This has proved to me if you put your mind to something you can achieve it.

"My family was delighted, with my mum phoning round family in Ecuador to let them know; it was just unbelievable for someone from our background to achieve this.

"I felt I owed it to my family to succeed, for all their support and everything they sacrificed for me."

The Roman Road school started teaching A-levels in 2012 with the aim of increasing the number of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who went on to Oxbridge or Russell Group universities.

Director of sixth form Sam Dobin said: "A big part of our success comes from getting our students to focus on what is important - performing to the best of their considerable ability.

"We actively dispel the myth that you have to look or speak a certain way to get a place at Oxford or Cambridge.

"Oxbridge simply want the students with the most academic ability and potential, and we instil within our students the confidence to make applications knowing that their talent and hard work will be rewarded."

Executive principal Dr Dayo Olukoshi added: "These offers reward the academic brilliance and dedication of our students.

"They have worked exceptionally hard to achieve the outstanding results that have put them in a position to make a competitive application and I am delighted to see their talent being recognised.

"Nearly 100 of our students have received offers to study at Oxford or Cambridge in the past two years, and I could not be happier for them."