Newcastle secondary school pupils still lag behind their national counterparts despite Progress 8 improvement

Progress 8 - the benchmark on which schools are judged - showed Newcastle had an average score of -0.28, meaning on average the Local Authority’s children achieved over a quarter of a grade less in their GCSEs compared to children assessed as being of the same ability nationally.

Commenting on the city’s Progress 8 score, Cllr Lesley Storey, Cabinet Member for Children and Families at Newcastle City Council said: “In 2024, Newcastle saw improvements in its Progress 8 and Attainment 8 measures, along with a higher proportion of students achieving a pass in both English and mathematics. This positive trend in attainment stood in contrast to a decline in both regional and national averages.

“We continue to work closely with school leaders and the Department for Education to support Newcastle’s secondary academies, the vast majority of which saw improved student attainment in 2024.”

The Progress 8 scores for the city’s schools showed a wide disparity in results with little middle ground. Three schools were classed as making well above average progress, one was above average, whilst seven were classed as well below average.

Only one school was classed as making average progress.

The floor standard for Progress 8 set by the Department for Education is -0.5, meaning children are on average attaining half a grade less in their GCSEs than their national peers of pre-assessed similar ability.

Below this score, schools may be flagged to Ofsted as a cause for concern and could be subject to a subsequent inspection.

To calculate Progress 8, each school is given a statistically calculated positive or negative value which is used to assess the progress made by pupils of the same assessed starting point when they sat their Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) in Year 6 and the results then achieved in their GCSEs in Year 11.

It was introduced in 2016 as a fairer way to assess a school’s academic performance, rather than simply looking at raw grades and outcomes.

A score above zero represents that pupils made more progress, on average, than pupils across England who got similar results at the end of Year 6 while a score below means, on average, they made less.