A Comparison of Havering and Redbridge Secondary Schools, 2025

It is reasonable to compare Havering and Redbridge as they are outer-London boroughs with the same number of secondary schools. They are politically linked being a single GLA constituency.

The government highlights the achievement of GCSE Grades 5-9 in English and Mathematics. These subjects are the gateway to post-16 opportunities and are the Gold Standard. It is imperative students achieve these grades.

The majority of Redbridge and Havering’s schools exceed the national average (see Appendix tables One and Two below). Redbridge has 14 schools achieving the Gold Standard whilst Havering has 11. On balance, Redbridge’s schools are qualitatively superior to Havering’s. Redbridge has two selective schools which hoover up the most talented 11+ students. Redbridge has six out of the top ten positions for achievement, whilst Havering has all five of the worst achieving schools. These positions have been stable for a number of years, which is worrying for Havering’s students.¹

Note

1 Havering and Redbridge’s Secondary Schools: A Comparison, 2024 – Politics in Havering

APPENDIX: 2025 GCSE Grades 5-9 English and Mathematics

Table One: Above the National Average (Redbridge in italics)

*Woodford County*	98.9%
*Ilford County*	97.2%
*Valentines*	75.3%
Coopers Coburn	70.8%
*Seven Kings*	70.5%
Sacred Heart of Mary	70%
*Trinity Catholic*	64.7%
*Ark Isaac Newton*	64.6%
Royal Liberty	64.6%
Campions	62.3%
*Ursuline Catholic*	61.5%
Hornchurch High	61.4%
*Wanstead*	61.1%
*Loxford*	59.9%
*Beal*	59.4%
Gaynes	58.8%
*Woodbridge*	58.3%
*Oaks Park*	57.2%
*Chadwell Heath*	53.9%
Hall Mead	51%
Harris Academy Rainham	50.3%
Redden Court	48.6%
St Edwards	48.6%
*Palmers*	46.9%
Frances Bardsley	45.7%
National Average	45.2%

Table Two: Below the National Average

National Average	45.2%
Abbs Cross	45.1%
Emerson Park	43.5%
*Caterham*	43.3%
*King Solomon*	41.7%
*Forest*	37.1%
*Mayfield*	36.6%
Drapers	34.6%
Marshalls Park	32.7%
Bower Park	31.4%
Sanders Draper	30.7%
Brittons	27.1%

Havering’s Secondary Academies and their Disadvantaged Students, 2025

The government publishes an annual set of education statistics with GCSE grades 5-9¹ highlighted. These ‘Gold Standard’ results are the foundation for post-16 education. The Attainment Gap is the underachievement of disadvantaged students in relation to the non-disadvantaged.² The legal definition of a ‘Disadvantaged Student’ is one who has free school meals and/or is a ‘Looked After Child’.

Is the Attainment Gap Inevitable?

Disadvantaged students, in general, do badly at GCSE. The Mossbourne Group³ have adopted severe discipline as a tactic for rectifying underachievement. This tactic is loved by some parents and hated by others. The first group are aspirational and those hating it often have SEND children who suffer in an unforgiving stmosphere.⁴ Mossbourne’s schools are focused on the Gold Standard. Havering’s academies mimic Mossbourne in only one respect – draconian rules on uniform.⁵ Havering’s academies have petty ‘zero tolerance’ policies. They don’t embrace Mossbourne’s agenda, which is gruelling for teachers.

Mossbourne’s successes are matched by Royal Liberty.⁶ However Mossbourne has 52% disadvantaged students as against Royal Liberty’s 19%. In Havering only Brittons has Mossbourne’s level of deprivation. Brittons has very poor GCSE results (see Appendix below). Seven of Havering’s academies have an 80%+ fail rate for Gold Standard GCSEs for disadvantaged students. Discouragingly every academy is below the Havering average for non-disadvantaged students. Havering’s academies fail disadvantaged students.

The attainment gap isn’t inevitable. Havering’s academies are unable, or unwilling, to change to meet the challenge.

The Human Cost

Using Royal Liberty as a benchmark, comparative outcomes are appalling.⁷Sanders Draper had 23 disadvantaged candidates in 2025. Three achieved the Gold Standard. Another five students would have achieved the Gold Standard if they’d attended Royal Liberty.⁸ Five students were harmed by Sanders Draper in 2025.

Brittons had 70 disadvantaged students for GCSE in 2025. If Royal Liberty’s outcome is used, this gives Brittons 36 Gold Standard passes. They actually achieved 12. Statistically 24 more students could have achieved the Gold Standard. 24 students were harmed by attending Brittons.

The same story is repeated in 15 Havering academies to a lesser degree.

Conclusion

It’s shameful that Havering consistently fails the most vulnerable of their young people. A grim counsel of despair permeates the borough’s academies. Havering’s academies are in denial. The majority of disadvantaged students fail to achieve their potential. This is a tragedy with huge implications for their future lives.

Notes

1 Abbs Cross Academy and Arts College – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK This is the first in the list for Havering. Drill down to get the school you want.

2 ‘Disadvantaged’ means they have free school meals or are ‘Looked After’.

3 Results by pupil characteristics – Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK This is an inner-city school

4 Mossbourne’s draconian ‘punishment no matter what’ regime linked to pupils’ self-harm and disproportionately targeted Black boys with harsh sanctions, damning report reveals – Hackney Citizen Compare this, Four Outstanding Schools and Disadvantaged Students | Odeboyz’s Blog

5 School Blazers: A Stealth Tax on Education? – Politics in Havering

6 Royal Liberty 51.9% of their disadvantaged students got the Gold Standard; Mossbourne 56.6%

7 Obviously they are even worse if Mossbourne’s statistics are used.

8 This is reductionist but gives a direction of travel.

APPENDIX: 2025 GCSE Grades 5-9 English and Mathematics: Disadvantaged students

School	Percentage
Havering Average – non-disadvantaged students	54.2%
Royal Liberty	51.9
Hornchurch High	44.7
Coopers Coburn	44.4
Gaynes	40
Hall Mead	38.2
Sacred Heart of Mary	36.4
St Edwards	35.3
Campions	33.3
Abbs Cross	31.4
Harris Academy Rainham	28.3
Emerson Park	25.6
Frances Bardsley	19.6
Drapers	19.2
Marshalls Park	18.6
Redden Court	18.6
Bower Park	17.2
Brittons	17.1
Sanders Draper	13

School Blazers: A Stealth Tax on Education?

An education stealth tax goes like this:

Children must attend school
Children must wear school uniform
Pay up, or else!

When schools insist on clothing with logos, they increase prices. The government says this is unacceptable. (see Addendum). But they didn’t tackle the cost of school blazers. Blazers are an expensive item of compulsory school clothing. Havering’s parents pay excessive amounts for blazers, which are a relic of a by-gone era.¹

To save researching all 18 of Havering’s schools I reviewed six, which is a good sample. They are in alphabetical order.

Abbs Cross blazer costs between £38:50 and £41:50; Bower Park: £37:50-£45.50; Drapers: £35:50-£43.99; Emerson Park: £32-£45; Gaynes: £38.50-£41.50; Hall Mead: £34-£40.

Havering has nearly 18,000 secondary students. Wearing blazers is compulsory. A heroic estimate, based on experience, says students need three blazers in their school years. The Havering blazer ‘bill’ is huge. There are a variety of prices but let’s assume an average price of £40.

Compulsory school blazers is a £2,160,000 ‘tax bill’

Two million pounds plus requires an explanation when it’s claimed to be as important as attendance. So, what do schools say?

Abbs Cross “…all students to be in full school uniform and be suitably dressed for P.E., Games and Swimming.⁴

Bower Park “We insist on the following simple, but smart, uniform for all students at the academy.”⁵

Drapers “There is no compromise on the uniform. Parents are asked for their unwavering support in transforming standards at every level.”⁶ (my emphasis)

Emerson Park We have a smart and practical uniform which must be worn during school hours and when pupils travel to and from the Academy….whilst also presenting a good image of the Academy to the community.⁷ (my emphasis)

Gaynes They list ten items of clothing, which are compulsory. Additionally, there are 49 words of *guidance* on hairstyles. The *guidance* can be summarised as, “If we don’t like it, you can’t do it”. There is no explanation for any of this.⁸

Hall Mead The Academy has a strict policy on school uniform. This policy should be read in conjunction with the Academy’s Behaviour and Attendance Policy, as disciplinary sanctions may be imposed for breach.⁹(my emphasis)

It’s absurd to believe that any teacher who has stepped outside the school gates for 30 seconds can believe that blazers are anything other than an oddity. For them to also believe that blazers are critical to learning, compounds the absurdity. Yet, Havering’s schools do believe blazers are very important. They enforce their absurd beliefs with ferocious penalties. (see note 6 for the penalties Drapers school inflicts.)

Havering’s schools are locked in a performative tautology. Blazers are compulsorybecause they are. Blazers are co-equal with attendance in the eyes of senior management.

Addendum: Statutory advice on school uniforms

Single supplier contracts should be avoided unless regular tendering competitions are run where more than one supplier can compete for the contract and where the best value for money is secured. This contract should be retendered at least every 5 years….Schools should keep the use of branded items to a minimum. (my emphasis)

Source Cost of school uniforms – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Notes

1 Schools often provide access to second hand uniforms.

2 Abbs Cross Academy – SCHOOL UNIFORM DIRECT For the other five schools just follow the links on their websites

3 Havering has 17,951 secondary school students

4 Uniform – Abbs Cross Academy

5 Uniform-Expectations.pdf

6 Uniform – Drapers’ Academy see also Policy Title: p7 Internal Exclusion Room The Internal Exclusion Room (IER) is used as an alternative to external suspension. Pupils work for one day or more, determined by SLT, and complete their classwork in a separate supervised environment. They have a shortened supervised break and lunch at a different time to other pupils. (my emphasis)

Drapers use the Internal Exclusion Room to enforce discipline. Students are punished by having their educational opportunities reduced. Uniform is seen as co-equal with nine other infractions: Point 3: Arriving to school in incorrect uniform and refusing to address this.

7 Emerson Park Academy – Uniform

8 Uniform – Gaynes School

9 Uniform – Hall Mead School

Havering’s Academies Believe in Magic

“[Magic is]…the use of special powers to make things happen that would usually be impossible…”¹

Academies have a magical belief in the importance of uniforms to learning. Unfortunately, school uniforms are part of a ‘Belief system’, not an educational strategy.

Magic explains why every academy believes uniforms are important and an eligibility criterion for entry to their schools. Academies demand school uniform despite knowing they don’t improve learning outcomes.

Case Studies

Abbs Cross Academy “Blazer:Black with green piping and embroidered school motif. School tie:black and green stripe with logo.” These cost about £47 and are compulsory. They need to be replaced about every two years.²

Abbs Cross is a Loxford Trust school who, “…thrives on its exacting and uncompromising nature and its quest for success for all students”. They don’t mention school uniform.³ The alleged importance of school uniform goes beyond school, “Trust Schools have the power to sanction pupils for misbehaviour outside of the school premises to such an extent as is reasonable….when wearing school uniform…”⁴ They worry about reputational damage if students misbehave in uniform.

Harris Academy Rainham The compulsory blazer and tie combo cost £46 every two years. (Boys must wear a tie but girls, surprisingly, don’t.)⁵ “Our uniform is an important part of encouraging and maintaining our school ethos of Belong, Believe, Become.

“Belong, Believe, Become,” is cute alliteration and meaningless. It’s feel-good PR drivel.

Royal Liberty The compulsory blazer and tie combo is about £36 plus seven other items. This is pricy. They don’t justify uniforms as a route to achievement, “At Royal Liberty we want our students to look smart in their school uniform at all times; not only in school but also travelling to and from school. We feel it is important that students have pride in their school and respect its uniform by wearing it neatly.”⁶ (see research note)

Discussion

The schools don’t justify their tax on learning. They are a herd, who have uniforms because everyone else does. They don’t critique school uniform or substantive educational issues.⁷ Havering isn’t an educational island⁸ and the cost of school uniforms could be better spent on significant educational opportunities.

School uniforms are a tax on learning.

Research note These schools were selected randomly but tell the same story. A survey of the other 15 schools offered no alternative narratives.

Notes

1 MAGIC | English meaning – Cambridge Dictionary

2 Abbs Cross Academy – SCHOOL UNIFORM DIRECT

3 School Priorities – Abbs Cross Academy

4 DUE-SUMMER-2026-POLICY-BEHAVIOUR-POLICY.pdf

5 School Uniform – Harris Academy Rainham

6 School Uniform Code – Next Review_ Sept 2025 (DHI).pdf – Google Drive

7 Havering and Redbridge’s Secondary Schools: A Comparison, 2024 – Politics in Havering see also Havering and Redbridge: A Tale of Two Boroughs – Politics in Havering This is dated 2019, which is pre-Covid

8 Havering and Redbridge’s Disadvantaged Secondary Students – Politics in Havering This refers to 2022

Drapers’ Academy and Disadvantaged Students

[Nationally] 25.2% of disadvantaged pupils and 52.4% of all other pupils got a grade 5 or above [in GCSE English and Maths]¹

Drapers’ Academy should be experts in educating disadvantaged students. In 2024 they entered 89 disadvantaged students for GCSE. They have a critical mass enabling the school to pivot teaching to their needs. Achieving Gold Standard GCSEs, which are Grade 5+ for English and Maths, for the disadvantaged demands robust strategies. Poverty doesn’t cause the under-achievement of disadvantaged children but there’s a correlation.²

Drapers’, in 2024, beat the national average. Their disadvantaged students achieved 28.1% Gold Standard.

Drapers’ Academy is managed by Queen Mary University, London. A university management trust should utilise their research expertise with GCSE results. They’re a diagnostic tool for research. Once data is analysed they can recommend the best strategies for improving outcomes.

St Edward’s Academy, Romford³actively research the achievement of the disadvantaged. (see Addendum two) In 2024 they achieved significantly superior⁴ results to Drapers’. If replicated at Drapers’, seven extra Gold Standard successes would have occurred.

The government’s 2024 Pupil Premium payment for Year 11 at Drapers’ was a minimum of £93,450.⁵ Did that £93K raise standards? Drapers’ are committed to Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model of Child Development.⁶ GCSE results in 2024 didn’t endorse its insights.

Drapers’ had 89 students facing significant challenges in 2024. They have huge amounts of Pupil Premium funding, an academic management team and a desire to succeed. If St Edward’s can do it why not Drapers’?

Addendum One: Drapers’ Academy, Chair of Governors

Oliver Everett is a Liveryman of the Drapers’ Company. He is a farmer and a consultant specialising in the link between the private sector and government, working extensively in Africa. Outside work, he is an Entrepreneur Mentor in Residence at London Business School.

Addendum Two: St Edward’s and their access to research

Having Unity Research School as part of Unity Schools Partnership means that Unity’s schools have instant access to evidence-based information which they can use in the classroom to improve outcomes for pupils, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. In an age of over-whelming amounts of pseudo-evidence, Unity Research School provides a solid and trustworthy source of information, proven to work in school settings and can help each school apply the evidence so that it is relevant to their setting and pupils’ needs.⁷

Notes

1 Attainment at age 16 – Social Mobility Commission State of the Nation – GOV.UK

2 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/correlation

3 Results by pupil characteristics – St Edward’s Church of England Academy – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK They aren’t a privileged school. 36% of their students in 2024 were disadvantaged. Coopers Coburn had 5% disadvantaged students who achieved three Gold Standard passes.

4 Seven doesn’t look much but it is 28.5 percentage points greater.

5 The 89 students would have generated several hundred thousand pounds of Pupil Premium funding over their five years at the school

6 Pupil Premium – Drapers’ Academy

7 Unity Research School | Unity Schools Partnership

Havering’s Secondary Schools: Two Government Assessments

Havering’s schools have two forms of government assessment. Firstly, Progress 8 predicts GCSE results by using a statistical analysis of KS2. Schools which add value means children will out-perform their expected grades. Secondly, OFSTED reports. They happen at multi-year intervals. Inspectors grade schools using five headings, (1) Overall effectiveness, (2) Effectiveness of leadership and management, (3) Quality of teaching, learning and assessment, (4) Personal development, behaviour and welfare and (5) Outcomes for pupils.

Progress 8

Well Above Average¹

Sacred Heart of Mary, Campion and Harris Academy Rainham

Above Average

Royal Liberty, Coopers Coborn, Frances Bardsley, Hall Mead, Redden Court and Hornchurch High

Average

Gaynes, St Edward’s and Drapers’

Below Average

Abbs Cross, Emerson Park, Marshalls Park, Brittons and Sanders Draper

Well Below Average

Bower Park

OFSTED

OFSTED uses four summary categories Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate. Reports aren’t annual and not necessarily current.

Outstanding

Hall Mead, Redden Court, Sacred Heart of Mary, Francis Bardsley (3 categories out of 5), and Royal Liberty (short inspection)

Good

Every other school.

Discussion

There’s no correlation between the two government assessments.

OFSTED criteria, Quality of teaching, learning and assessment and Outcomes for pupils are critical for every stakeholder using the reports.

How can a 22% GCSE Grade 5+ English and Maths pass rate for disadvantaged children at Abbs Cross² be rewarded by a ‘Good’ assessment. OFSTED say, Trustees, leaders and staff have high expectations for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). (my emphasis). ‘High expectations’ in this context is overblown.

Likewise, Marshalls Park. 42.1% non-disadvantaged children passed Grade 5+ English and Maths and are rated ‘Good’. This result is 5% below the national average and 10% below the Havering comparator. Worse: disadvantaged children achieved a sickening 21.8%⁴ English and Maths Gold Standard pass rate at Marshalls Park.

OFSTED reports aren’t fit for purpose. Their reports lack rigour and ignore outcomes which are important to society. Progress 8 focuses on added value, whichschools create. OFSTED ignores these insights. This is a criminal dereliction of duty.

Notes

1 Search results for “Havering” – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK See also Havering’s Secondary Academies: Their Progress 8 Rankings, 2024 – Politics in Havering

2 Abbs Cross Academy and Arts College – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK Grade 5+ English and Maths is a Gold Standard acting as an entry point for many post 16 opportunities

3 Abbs Cross Academy and Arts College – Open – Find an Inspection Report – Ofsted

4 Results by pupil characteristics – Marshalls Park Academy – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK

Havering’s Academies On Parade: Choose Me!

In the 1950s children attended their nearest secondary school and four years later they left. They started work the following Monday. And that was that.

It’s more complex nowadays. Schools are expected to be attractive and parents must choose a school. How? Choosing implies knowledge. Diligent parents do research, read OFSTED reports, scrutinise school’s web pages and attend Open Evenings.

Good GCSE results are a selling point for some parents. But what if the school isn’t a stellar performer? What happens then?

They shamelessly duck and dive.

St. Edwards Academy have an out-of-date ‘Performance and Results’ page. This is supported by the government performance website, which tells the reader that the school’s grade is ‘Well above average’.²Expertise is needed to understand the website. The 2022 OFSTED report, which is readable, is good.³

Meanwhile Marshalls Park Academy is, “…incredibly proud of all students….and our 2024 results include many notable success stories.”³ They follow up with a link to the government website.⁴ Its banding is, “Well Below Average”.⁵ Nonetheless the school reaches the national ‘Gold Standard’ GCSE English and Maths grade 5.⁶

Coopers Coburn,⁸ Drapers Academy⁹ and Harris Academy Rainham¹⁰ publish exam results in full. Parents, who care about GCSE results, know exactly where they stand. There’s no ambiguity.

GCSE results aren’t commercial secrets, which need protecting. They’re part of the way in which parents chose a school for their child.

Addendum: Research note

This was written on the 27^th October 2024. The schools quoted are a sample of the 18 academies in Havering. This topic is discussed in more detail here.¹¹

Notes

1 Performance & Results | St Edward’s Church of England Academy

2 St Edward’s Church of England Academy – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK A dedicated parent would look at this table Download data – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK

3 St Edward’s Church of England Academy – Open – Find an Inspection Report – Ofsted

4 Marshalls Park Academy – Exam Results It continues, “Our two top performing students were Ralph Gilroy and Caoimhe Juson, with an impressive 16 grade 8 and 9’s between them.” The misplaced apostrophe is unfortunate in this context

5 Marshalls Park Academy – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK

6 loc.cit. This relates to 2023. It’s included because the school directed the reader to it.

7 loc.cit.

8 GCSE-Examination-Results-2024.pdf

9 Headline-Results-2024-main.pdf

10 Examinations Results – Harris Academy Rainham

11 How Havering’s Academies Conceal their 2022 GCSE Results – Politics in Havering NB Harris Academy have changed their presentation of results since 2022 and are now an example of best practice.

Havering’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 5th March, 2024 (part two)

This agenda included a Housing item and the School Performance analysis. The latter is the focus of this blog.

Matt Stanton (1 hour47)¹expressed concerns about how wide the variations in achievement between schools are. He asked the Director what was needed to rectify this problem. Trevor Cook replied ‘Context’ was needed to understand the issue. This is pivotal as it implies underachievement is inevitable. It chimed with remarks about fortunate authorities who suffered less from Covid-19 and had superior funding.

Praising Hall Mead and Redden Court damaged his argument. In 2019 both were below average.²They’re now average. This happened during five challenging years. Their performance has improved in the Covid-19 and Funding Crisis years.

The 2019 list of eleven below average schools has reduced to six in 2024.⁴ Emerson Park has dropped into the ‘below average’ group since 2019. A third of Havering’s secondary schools are below average (6 out of 12) and five schools left the 2019 list.

Matt’s concerns were echoed by Frankie Walker, Mandy Anderson and Judith Holt. Judith believed every Havering school should be above average. She refuted Trevor Cook’s response about Covid-19 and Funding. Her actual doubts related to whether his explanations were correlation or causation. All of Havering’s schools share the same challenges but nonetheless there are massive differences in outcomes.

Trevor Cook is soothing. However, members were in a combative mood looking for action. Some academies are successful but others are weak. A third of Havering’s schools are below average, which is far too many.

Notes

1 Agenda for People Overview & Scrutiny Sub Committee on Tuesday, 5th March, 2024, 7.00 pm | The London Borough Of Havering Go to webcast and then to one hour 47 for the beginning of his contribution

2 Havering and Redbridge: A Tale of Two Boroughs – Politics in Havering 29^th Nov 2019

3 All schools and colleges in Havering – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK (compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk) This gives the current status of every school in Havering.

4 Schools leaving the 2019 list are Abbs Cross, Hornchurch High, Royal Liberty, Redden Court and Hall Mead

Havering, Barking and Dagenham and The Attainment Gap, 2023

Providing great schooling is the single most important thing we can do to help any child from a disadvantaged background succeed. It’s also the single most important thing we can do to boost the long-term productivity of our economy George Osborne’s Budget speech in full (ft.com) 2016

Education is the, “single most important thing” (see above) for disadvantaged students and the national economy. George Osborne funded the Pupil Premium (PP), which, in 2023, had a £2.9bn budget as an investment.¹ Schools are allocated £1,035 per student from PP funds. They are expected to close the attainment gap because it is a negative in human and economic terms.

The ‘attainment gap’ is based on failing to achieve Grade 5 GCSE in English and Maths because of poverty. It is used by the government in their analysis of results.² There are shocking variations between boroughs in their achievement. Students in Redbridge are more than twice as likely to get the Gold Standard as those in Havering.³ (see graph below)

Barking and Dagenham is the fifth most deprived borough in England⁴whilst its neighbour Havering is prosperous. Many schools have a successful learning environment for disadvantaged students. Other schools, apparently, expect them to fail by not meeting their needs.

Havering’s 653 Year 11 disadvantaged students in 2023 achieved a ‘Gold Standard’⁵ pass rate of 27%. Barking and Dagenham’s 939 disadvantaged students achieved a 38% pass rate. Eleven percentage points is a chasm. If Havering’s schools matched Barking and Dagenham’s, the success rate would soar. Put simply, it equates to an additional 68 passes for Havering’s Year 11s in 2023.

All of Havering’s schools are academies who are accountable for these disastrous results. The academies are entirely responsible for educational outcomes.

Notes

1 SN06700.pdf (parliament.uk)

2 Compare the performance of schools and colleges in England – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) This is an invaluable resource and is relatively straight-forward.

3 Havering’s GCSE Attainment Gap, 2023 – Politics in Havering See also Havering and Redbridge’s Disadvantaged Secondary Students – Politics in Havering ‘Gold Standard’ as it is a principal gateway qualification post-16

4 IoD2019_Statistical_Release.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk) See especially map 2 on p12

Havering’s GCSE Attainment Gap, 2023

GCSE Grade 5 English and Maths is as crucial for disadvantaged students as for all other youngsters. Unfortunately, disadvantaged students do so badly in some schools, it’s as if they’re victims of a conspiracy.¹

The Gold Standard for GCSE is ‘Grade 5 English and Maths’. This is the benchmark used to define the attainment gap. It’s ‘Gold’ because it impacts on post-16 opportunities where success is a game changer. Regardless of the excellence of other GCSE results students must have Grade 5 English and Maths to progress to ‘A’ level for example.

St Edwards is the only Havering school with a level playing field for disadvantaged students.

The Human Cost

In 2023, 653 disadvantaged students sat GCSE. The national success result for all students is 45.3%.² This benchmark means 295 disadvantaged students should have achieved the Gold Standard in Havering. Their actual results are 175 Gold Standard passes (27%). 120 students were denied many post-16 opportunities because their school didn’t level-up the achievement gap by using government funds efficiently.

(If St Edwards is used as the benchmark, Havering’s attainment gap increases to 151 students.)

Government funding for disadvantaged students

Schools with disadvantaged students receive £1,035 per student Pupil Premium (PP) funding. ‘Disadvantaged’ means receiving ‘Free School Meals’ or being ‘Looked After’. The money is paid directly to schools as they’re trusted to use the funds wisely and ‘level-up’ achievement.³ The minimum the government paid Havering’s 18 schools for Year 11s, 2022-3, is £678,249. Most of that funding wasn’t used efficiently as can be seen from the table above.

The Attainment Gap: Marshalls Park and Emerson Park

Both schools achieved 45% ’Gold Standard’ results for students in general but utterly failed disadvantaged students with a ‘success’ rate of 16% and 17% respectively.

Emerson Park don’t publish exam results but state, “Emerson Park Academy is, once again, celebrating an outstanding set of GCSE results.” (my emphasis)
Marshalls Park don’t publish their results either. They say, “We believe that we provide an academic education, that is grounded in strong literacy and numeracy….” (my emphasis)³

The government’s PP funding stream for Year 11 disadvantaged students is £46,575 for Marshalls Park and £48,645 for Emerson Park. Neither the government or Year 11 disadvantaged students got ‘value-for-money’. It’s clear PP funding isn’t used to the best effect. Both schools have strategies which need an urgent revisit with external experts.

The Attainment Gap: OFSTED

The attainment gap is not discussed in OFSTED reports nor is the use of Pupil Premium funding.⁴

Notes

1 The-Forgotten-Third-Interim-Report-March-2019.pdf (ascl.org.uk) This research focuses on Grade 4 and is less than what is used for this discussion. Grade 4 is an entry level qualification and is discounted for ‘A’ level courses.

2 Key stage 4 performance, Academic year 2022/23 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)

3 Emerson Park Academy – A message from Mr McGuinness regarding GCSE Results This relates to 2022 there is nothing for 2023 even though the data was accessed February 2024. See also Marshalls (marshallspark.org.uk)

4 Marshalls Park 50148108 (ofsted.gov.uk) See also Emerson Park 50193985 (ofsted.gov.uk)