Two new inner London sixth forms are setting their entry bar higher than some of the UK's most elite private schools to stop a drain of talented students.
City of London Academy Shoreditch Park in Hackney and City of London Academy Highgate Hill in Islington will open their exclusive sixth form centres later this year.
But students hoping to attend must score the equivalent of an eight A grades in their GSCE subjects to gain a place.
This makes the schools' entry requirements more rigorous than Eton College, where prospective students only require six GCSEs with top marks.
Eton, one of the world's best-known schools, has been attended by 20 UK prime ministers, including Boris Johnson and famous academics such as John Maynard Keynes and George Orwell.
Two new inner London sixth forms are setting their entry bar higher than some of the UK's most elite private schools to stop a drain of talented students. Pictured: Students and teachers from Shoreditch Park in Hackney and Highgate Hill in Islington
The new centres are being run in partnership with Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre (NCS), Newham, where 95 percent of pupils go on to attend Russell Group Universities.
Their Ivy League programme has also helped youngsters from one of the poorest areas in the country win places at top US universities including Harvard, Princeton and MIT.
Students attending the new sixth form schools will receive specialist support including tutoring for the SATs and an aptitude test required by the American educational system.
There will also be bespoke Oxbridge workshops, expert-run application sessions and interview preparation, as well as specific medicine and law programmes.
Shoreditch Park headteacher Holly Arles said: 'Like many of the students we hope to inspire, I am from a working-class background and went on to attend a top university.
'I therefore share this highly aspirational vision for our sixth form, where background is no barrier to success. With the right attitude and education, our students can fulfil their potential.'
Like NCS, students will be expected to dress in business attire and will be given elocution, etiquette and cultural capital lessons.
This will help them compete with their privately educated peers in interviews for university and jobs later in life.
Each school has put forward three of their best students hoping to be the first to benefit from the elite
