Three hard-working teenagers from a tough London school have secured free boarding places at an exclusive private college.

Horatio Georgestone, 16, Tosin Teriba, 16 and George Weller, 15, impressed to land the places, worth £7,500 a term at Brighton College. They are being funded by the college and banking giant HSBC.

The teenagers from Kingsford Community School in Newham, where two pupils have been murdered in the past three years, visited Brighton College a fortnight ago for a day of interviews and presentations in their bid to win one of the places at the school in Kemp Town.

The unique link up saw the three pupils picked from a chosen top 11 candidates from Kingsford to study A-levels and board at Brighton College.

Initially there were only two places on offer but HSBC upped its backing.

Brighton College headmaster Richard Cairns said he had wanted to offer places to all eleven pupils.

He said: "They are all very bright, they all want to do well in life and they are all desperate to have a fresh chance, an opportunity to learn away from the distractions of neighbourhood and family.

"They are also lovely, positive human beings. In days gone by, the grammar schools would have rescued these people and nurtured them. These same people would, in many cases, return to their local communities to give something back.

"Without more scholarship schemes like this, we face a future in which thousands of bright teenagers are frustrated by lack of opportunities and driven into a way of life that they don't want."

Joan Deslandes, the headteacher of Kingsford Community School, said: "The thing that struck me most when I visited Brighton College was the positive work ethic there. Some of my students share that commitment and academic ambition and I want them to have the chance to work with other young people of their ability with a shared determination to succeed."

The partnership between the schools came about when the two headmasters met last year after both made Mandarin lessons compulsory. As part of the project pupils will have to keep the language on when they move to Brighton.

Selected pupil Tosin Teriba said: "I hope they all like me for who I am.

"This is an opportunity to make my potential a reality."

Fellow pupil George Weller said: "It's not just the fact that it is a good college but it's also the experience of a whole new place."