Attainment in Secondary Schools (Key Stage 4 - GCSE)

This page includes data about GCSE results at the end of Key Stage 4 for Surrey, including by Free School Meal eligibility, SEN status, ethnic group, and first language.

Attainment statistics for Surrey pupils in state-funded primary schools are available here.

Attainment statistics for Surrey post-16 qualifications are available here.

*Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer exam series for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 academic years were cancelled.

Highlights:

(Latest data - 2023/24, next update expected around December 2025)

• Pupils in England take GCSEs at the end of Key Stage 4 (age 16). The Department for Education publish these results every year by the location of state-funded schools; independent schools are not included in these figures and are published in the same way. The Department for Education has not continued to produce these figures by location of pupil residency since 2015/16.

• The EBacc GCSE subjects are stated to ‘keep young people’s options open for further study and future careers’ and include English language and literature, mathematics, the sciences, geography or history, and a language). Over 1 in every 3 pupils in state-funded Surrey schools were entered for the EBacc GCSE subjects in 2023/24.

• The percentage of male and female pupils in state-funded schools in Surrey who achieve a standard pass in their English and mathematics GCSEs is higher than the South East and England (72.6% of boys and 75.4% of girls) but has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.

• Surrey pupils with SEN have nearly half a grade negative progress than those who had similar KS2 (taken at age 11) results nationally. The South East has a larger negative progress for SEN pupils (70 per cent of a grade lower than those with similar KS2 results nationally) than Surrey.

• Disadvantaged male pupils in Surrey achieve 0.79 of a grade of negative lower progress than their national counterparts with similar KS2 attainment, while female pupils in Surrey achieve 0.61 of a grade lower.

• Male pupils also have a lower progression score than female pupils for all ethnic groups apart from Asian.

• The difference in progression scores is the starkest in Black Surrey pupils where Black girls achieve around 75 per cent of a grade higher than their national counterparts with similar KS2 attainment, however, this is only 28 per cent higher for Black boys.

• Male and female pupils who have their first language as something other than English perform better at GCSE English and mathematics (74.4% of boys and 80.8% of girls achieve a standard pass in English and maths GCSEs) than their regional and national counterparts.

Frequency: Academic Year

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-gcses-key-stage-4