North East still has fewest students getting top grades

THE North East continues to have the fewest GCSE pupils getting top grades, with ministers being urged to invest to support the poorest pupils before the gap to London grows even wider.

- DANIEL HOLLAND Local Democracy Reporter

Just 17.8% of youngsters getting their results in our region yesterday day received a grade 7 or above. That is the lowest rate in England and is the same as in 2024.

While the figure has improved from the last pre-pandemic GCSE results in 2019, when it stood at 16.4%, the gap to pupils in London has grown in that time increasing from 9.3% to 10.6%.

Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said that regional inequalities felt by a generation of children whose education was hit hard by the impact of Covid-19 were “of significant concern”.

Mr Murison, a former Newcastle councillor, added: “In the North and Midlands, the gap in grade 7 and above with London has not closed since the pandemic. It remains more than 10 percentage points in the North East, East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber - a significantly wider gap than before Covid. In the North East, the gap with London narrowed by just 0.1%, and only because London's results fell from 2024, not due to any real improvement here.