KS4 Achievement
The pupils at London’s schools have higher GCSE scores than those from any other region. The average “Attainment 8” score, which gives a score across various core and optional elements, is more complex than the previous GCSE measures. London pupils do better than those across England as a whole on each element of the Attainment 8 score and across all attributes from ethnicity to FSM status. The exception showing in the scores from 2022/23 is that Black pupils – both boys and girls in London had slightly lower average attainment 8 scores than Black pupils for England as a whole.
GCSE marking for 2022/23 returned to pre-pandemic grading with some protections, so the results, while not comparable with those for 2020 and 2021, can be compared to those for 2019 with some caution. Results achieved between January 2020 and August 2021 by pupils included in the 2022/23 measures are not included in the calculations. Another change to the published results is that Chinese pupils are included in the Asian category for 2022/23, where previously the results were given as a separate category. The average Attainment 8 score in London for 2022/23 was 50.6, lower than the results given for the pandemic years (52.7 in 2021/22), but higher than in 2018/19, the last year of “normal” grading – 49.7. As in other years, the 2022/23 London figure was higher than the national figure (46.4).
Pupils are defined as disadvantaged if they are known to have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the past six years (from year 6 to year 11), if they are recorded as having been looked after for at least one day or if they are recorded as having been adopted from care.