Southend-on-Sea pupils gaining top GCSE grades

January 25, 2016 by Southend Borough Council

Southend-on-Sea pupils gaining top GCSE grades

Thursday 21st January 2016

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council is congratulating schools after figures released nationally showed a rise in the number of pupils achieving 5 or more A* - C GCSE grades including English and maths.

The percentage of pupils in Southend achieving the benchmark has climbed from 62.2 per cent in 2014 to 64.7 per cent in 2015 which is a continuing trend of improvement and well above the national average of 57.3%.

As a result of the improvements in the borough, Southend-on-Sea has jumped nine places from 24th to 15th in the local authority rankings and is ranked second in the eastern region. The average GCSE points score per pupil Southend was 418.9, putting Southend seventh out of all local authorities in the country in this measure.

Three quarters of Southend pupils made expected progress in English, up nearly two percentage points from last year and in maths the figure improved by nearly four percentage points to 73.7%, putting Southend-on-Sea in the top 20 local authorities.

As well as the publication of revised Key Stage 4 results, the Department for Education also released revised A-Level results today. In Southend’s state-funded schools and colleges, the average point score per entry for the A-level cohort was 222.4, compared with a state school national average of 216.1.

Cllr Anne Jones, Executive Councillor for Children and Learning, said: “I am delighted to see our schools and pupils continuing to achieve improved results, and achieve well above national averages. The provisional results were pleasing, but these official results are even better which put us towards the top of the national tables.

“It is great to see the progress being made, particularly in maths and English, which continue to be the core subjects looked at by employers when recruiting.

“As excellent as these results are, we cannot afford to take our foot off the pedal when it comes to our children’s education and there is still work to be done - ways we as an authority can better support our schools and their students to aim higher and give our students the best possible foundations for their journey into adulthood. Parents can rest assured that this is a challenge we are determined to continue tackling head on.”