Shiloh Huriso, from Cumberland Community School, who is now at Wellington College
(Picture: Cumberland Community School)When pupils at Cumberland Community School apply to its prestigious colleges programme, they are warned to prepare to be out of their comfort zone.
If selected to the scheme, the teenagers from east London have a chance of being awarded means-tested scholarships to attend sixth forms at leading fee-paying schools. And the lesson in discomfort starts straight away. At the first meeting of potential candidates, Simon Elliott, the CEO of the Community Schools Trust, which runs Cumberland, selects pupils without warning to talk about their academic interests in front of a room full of people.
