Private education extends GCSE lead over state schools

Private schools have widened their lead over state schools in this year’s GCSE results.

The share of top grades awarded to GCSE entries from private school pupils in England rose to 48.4 per cent this year, up from 47.8 per cent last year.

For academies, which make up the bulk of state secondary schools in England, the share of GCSEs awarded top grades edged up to 21.2 per cent – a slight increase compared to 2023’s 21 per cent.

Comprehensive schools had an even smaller rise, increasing 1 percentage point this year to 19.4 per cent.

It means the gap in top grades between private and comprehensive schools has widened to 29 percentage points, up from 28.2 percentage points in 2023.

It comes at a crucial moment for private schools ahead of the Government’s plans to start charging VAT from January, which headteachers warn could price many families out. Many fear this will cause a scramble for places at the 163 grammar schools in England, which are already oversubscribed and highly competitive.

Privately educated pupils in England also outperformed their state school peers in last week’s A-levels by the biggest margin on record.

Nearly half of all candidates from independent schools got at least one A* or A this summer, while 26.5 per cent did in academies.

Barnaby Lenon, the chairman of the Independent Schools council and an education professor at the University of Buckingham, said this year’s GCSE results showed “children in independent schools did especially well”.

“It is a great pity that the application of VAT is going to make these very good independent schools less accessible,” he said.

Chris Paterson, the chief executive of the education endowment foundation, said the widening gap in top grades between private and state schools was “further indication of the entrenched inequality in our system”.

Ministers have also warned of growing regional disparities and a sharp rise in the north-south divide in England.

London continued to pull further ahead following warnings from the Education Secretary over “entrenched regional disparities”.

In total, 28.5 per cent of GCSE entries from London pupils were awarded grade 7 or above, significantly higher than in regions like the North West of England, where 18.6 per cent of pupils’ GCSE entries were given top grades this summer – around the same as in the year before the pandemic. The North East had the lowest proportion, with 17.8 per cent of entries scoring at least a grade 7.

The share of grammar school pupils handed top grades also rose slightly, with 60.3 per cent of entries awarded grade 7 or above, up from 59.4 per cent in 2023.

Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, warned ahead of GCSE results day that the attainment gap would likely continue to widen.

“We know this week’s results are likely to show the same unacceptable, entrenched regional disparities we have seen time and time again,” she said.

“These pupils have shown remarkable resilience and determination, defying unprecedented disruption throughout the pandemic, RAAC and strike action. From A levels and T Levels to apprenticeships, they now have an exciting range of options available to them.”

It comes as top GCSE grades dropped slightly across England, Wales and Northern Ireland but failed to return to pre-pandemic levels.

The share of GCSE entries across all three nations awarded a grade 7 or above edged down to 21.8 per cent this year, from 22 per cent in 2023.

It is still higher than 2019 results when 20.8 per cent of GCSE entries were awarded top grades, despite efforts to stamp out pandemic-era grade inflation.

The share of top grades in England rose slightly to 21.65 per cent, up from 21.61 per cent in 2023. With the number of sitting candidates in the country up by 4.7 per cent this summer, it means the overall number of top grade awards in England actually rose by almost 58,000.

The share fell considerably in Wales and Northern Ireland this year as they completed their efforts to squeeze out pandemic-era grade inflation.

The proportion of GCSE entries awarded grade 7 or above in Wales fell to 19.2 per cent this summer, down from 21.7 per cent in 2023. In Northern Ireland, they fell from 34.5 per cent in 2023 to 31 per cent this year.

Thousands of pupils are expected to retake their maths and English GCSEs if they go on to sixth form in a rise from previous years.

Pupils who score lower than a grade 4 – equivalent to a former grade C – in either of the mandatory subjects are required to retake them until they either pass or turn 18.

This year, 38.1 per cent of pupils failed to achieve a grade 4 in English and 40.5 per cent in maths, up from 35.3 per cent in English last year and 38.9 per cent in maths.

The gender gap in GCSE results shrank to its smallest since 2009, though boys still under performed. For girls, the share of GCSEs awarded top grades was 24.7 per cent this year, down from 24.9 per cent in 2023, while it was 19 per cent for boys this summer, down from 19.1 per cent.

Experts have called for an urgent review into the gender gap at GCSE and the “chronic under-performance” by boys.

Prof Alan Smithers, the director of education at the University of Buckingham, who forecasts exams each year, said earlier this week: “The under-performance of boys in education generally should be treated as a major issue. This is of national importance, because we are not developing the talents of half the population as fully as we could.”

Pupils opening their German, French and computing GCSEs on Thursday will have benefited from more generous marking this year, which sent grades up by the biggest margins of any subject. Their share of top grades rose by 4.3 percentage points, 3.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points respectively compared with last year.

Ofqual said it would adjust grade boundaries for those subjects to make them slightly more lenient this summer amid concerns they had become too hard. It follows warnings that the popularity of French and German at GCSE has dropped over the past 14 years.

Commenting on this year’s GCSE results, Catherine McKinnell, the schools minister, said: “While this is a moment to celebrate, I am deeply concerned about the inequalities in our education system with where you live and what type of school you attend still being too big an influence on your opportunities.”