A lawyer who gave up his six-figure salary to become a teacher and then headmaster, is sending 95% of his pupils to the best universities in the world. Mouhssin Ismail, gave up his job at Norton Rose Fullbright and now has become the headmaster at the Newham Collegiate Sixth Form in East London, which he had joined as a teacher.
A total of 190 out of 200 of his students secured places at Russell Group universities in the first year itself, with 9 wining seats at the Oxford and Cambridge and one pupil- Tafsia Shikdar, joining MIT in the US.
Mr Ismail, 38, told the Independent that he decided to make the switch into teaching to give back to society and to use his skills to help students achieve the same things that he had.
Speaking to Shehab Khan from the Independent, he said “I think people are realising that students and people from the area I came from were not really given the skills or the cultural capital that you need to succeed in city firms.
“The children and their parents want them to do well academically and professionally but they don’t have the contacts or the know-how to get in there.
“I think for me it was about having that moment where I thought 'Am I really making a contribution to society?' and finding a career that allows me to do that.
"I came to the conclusion education was the best way to do it and I could use my skills to help students like me and help them to get to where I ended up.
“My aspiration is to send as many kids to Russell Group, Oxbridge and Ivy League universities as possible. The general view is if you come from a deprived area, you have limited chances of what you can do. But I know there are so many talented students in east London and it just requires different thinking and a different approach to giving these kids an opportunity.”
He alsohighlighted that being successful in a corporate environment requires much more that doing well academically and it is something important for the school to promote. Students from his school at the sixth form have had the opportunity to get work experience at prestigious law firms across the world and reportedly have weekly tutorials with experts from a range of professions.
