GSCE results 2022: London schools stretch lead over rest of country

London schools have stretched their lead over the rest of the country in GCSE results — outperforming other regions by a significant margin, it has been revealed.

Despite an overall drop in grades, around one third of GCSEs taken in the capital were given the top scores, compared with a quarter or less in most other English regions.

Across the UK, GCSE students saw a record drop in grades after taking exams for the first time for three years, with fewer passing crucial English and maths qualifications. The number of GCSEs given top grades of 7/A or above fell to 26.3 per cent — a drop of nine per cent compared with last year.

At the same time, the number of GCSEs reaching the pass rate of 4/C dropped by five per cent. But this year’s grades were still higher than in 2019, the last year that students took exams.

Thursday’s results show:

Speaking about the gap between girls and boys, Jill Duffy, chief executive of the OCR exam board, said: “We are seeing that girls achieved higher outcomes than boys, as has been the case for many years at GCSE. When I have talked to teachers about the reasons they point to the different maturity levels of boys and girls at 16.”

In England, 2,193 teenagers scored straight 9s in their exams, and 67 per cent of those were girls. This includes 13 students who took 12 GCSEs or more.

Double award science was the most popular subject, with more than 900,000 entries. Fewer students this year chose art and design and design and technology. There was also a drop in the number taking French, Spanish and German.

The overall pass rate fell to 98.4 per cent, down from 99 per cent last year.

GCSEs are graded from 9 to 1 in England, with a 7 the equivalent to a low A and a 4 to a low C. Wales and Northern Ireland retain letter grades.

The drop in grades came after two years of spiralling results during the pandemic when marks were based on teacher assessment. Results were deliberately lower this year as exams watchdog Ofqual oversees a two-step return to 2019 levels.

Experts warned that if grades had been allowed to continue to increase, exams would become worthless. Students were helped by a number of unprecedented adaptations to mitigate the impact of Covid, including being given advance information about the content of some exams to enable them to focus their revision and being allowed to take support materials, including formulae and equation sheets, into some exams. Papers were also graded more generously than ever before, which is why results were higher than when exams were last taken in 2019.

But the drop in the number passing English and maths means more will have to retake the subjects. Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, said: “It must be soul-destroying to continually retake an exam that you have failed in, and to be denied entry to apprenticeships. Surely there is a better way of ensuring that all young people leave schools able to handle the numbers they encounter and a sufficient grasp of English.”