Hanging proudly on the wall of an east London youth centre is a captivating black-and-white photograph of four teenage boys. Huddled together wearing formal dress and smiling tentatively, they are posing against the backdrop of one of Britain’s most elite boarding schools. Today, a decade after they began their new life at Rugby School, they are returning to the disadvantaged streets where they grew up to recreate the shot that was taken on the school’s playing fields. The image tells the extraordinary story of a unique experiment in social mobility. What happens when you take a group of black teenagers growing up in the shadow of gang culture and give them a scholarship to a top public school?

Source: The Times May 26, 2018 23:03 UTC