Department for Education written question – answered at on 10 March 2025.
Lord Lucas
Conservative
To ask His Majesty's Government how many pupils took examinations in summer 2024; how many GCSEs each pupil took on average; and what was the average grade achieved by the worst-performing 10 per cent of pupils in (1) mainstream schools, (2) special schools, (3) alternative provision and (4) all of the above.
Baroness Smith of Malvern
Minister of State (Education), Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
In 2023/24, there were 629,275 pupils in state-funded schools at the end of key stage 4. Of these pupils, 614,265 took at least one GCSE. The average number of GCSEs taken by pupils at the end of key stage 4 in state-funded schools was 7.3. This figure includes pupils who did not take any GCSEs.
These figures are all publicly available in the key stage 4 performance statistics release and the Compare School and College Performance (CSCP) website, which are available via the following links: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-4-performance and https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/.
The table below shows the average score for the lowest performing 10 percent of pupils broken down by school type. This is based on grading from 1 to 9, with grades U and X assigned a score of 0.
Average score for lowest performing 10% | ||
All pupils at the end of key stage 4 (1) | All pupils with an entry (2) | |
All state-funded schools (including Hospital, pupil referral units (PRU), alternative provision (AP)) | 0.62 | 1.12 |
State-funded mainstream schools | 1.04 | 1.18 |
All state-funded special schools | 0.00 | 0.05 |
Hospital schools, PRU and AP | 0.00 | 0.00 |
(1) Includes all pupils at the end of key stage 4. If no examinations were entered a pupil’s total grade is counted as 0.
(2) Includes pupils who have at least one entry which counts towards performance tables.
(3) Includes scores from all qualifications that count towards performance tables, not just GCSEs. All qualifications are assigned scores on the 1 to 9 scale.
(4) State-funded mainstream schools includes community schools, voluntary aided schools, voluntary controlled schools, foundation schools, sponsored academies (mainstream), converter academies (mainstream) and free schools (mainstream).
(5) State-funded special schools includes community special schools, foundation special schools, special sponsor-led academies, special converter academies and special free schools.
(6) Alternative provisions includes pupil referral units, academy alternative provision, community hospital schools, and free school alternative provision.
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