Lancashire placed on worst GCSE results list

GCSE exams have started in England this week and Lancashire has been revealed among the worst regions for 2023 GCSE results, a new report has found. Students in Lancashire have produced the third lowest performing grades in England when it comes to GCSE results, according to new data.

 The 2024 Knowledge Gap Report, created by education software specialist Access Education, analysed Ofqual data from 2023 to highlight which regions need to work on closing the gap in the 2024 exam season across the top 15 most common subjects and which of those have achieved the top grades.

Just over 32 per cent of students in Lancashire gained an average grade of three or below across these GCSE subjects that year, which included three core subjects; maths (percentage), English language (percentage) and English literature (percentage).

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However, Lancashire came behind Merseyside which topped the list with a total of 35.2 per cent of students receiving a grade of three or below.

On the other hand, Surrey was the location with the highest achieving students overall (31.6 per cent), ranking as one of the top three regions for maths, English language, English alliteration and Combined Science.

Emma Slater, senior product manager at Access Education said: “GCSEs are the first hurdle that pupils go through that could influence their future study and career path which can be nerve-wracking.

“They face the pressure of choosing the right subjects to dedicate their time to until they take the assessments two years later which is a lot for young people to take on.

“Alongside this already high-pressure time, the Department for Education has announced they will remove the guidance which was provided to students affected by the pandemic, meaning those undertaking their exams in 2025 and onwards won’t be given tools like equations and formulas.

“It’ll be interesting to see how this affects the knowledge gap in years to come.”

She added: “Based on the data we have found, we have seen that students exhibit uncertainty and hesitation in foundational knowledge across many core subjects.

“By using educational tools such as GCSEPod the learning processes can be made a lot easier for both students and teachers, delivering short bursts of content that are engaging to watch while allowing teachers to adapt their lesson plans to meet each student’s individual needs.”

To view the full report click HERE.