Top GCSE grades fall as the attainment gap between private and state schools widens and regional disparities remain unchanged.

Congratulations to all the students receiving their GCSE results today and your teachers who have supported you over the past few years! You’ve done an amazing job and shown incredible resilience despite the multiple challenges you had to overcome in your schooling post-pandemic.

While the results day is a reason to celebrate, it sadly also highlights the growing inequalities and the impact on opportunities that young people have depending on where they live or what type of school they attend.

The widening gap between private and state schools in top grades is concerning as it shows the lingering effects of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. According to Sutton Trust’s analysis, 48.4% of grades in independent schools were at A/7 or higher, up from 47.5% last year. In contrast, at academies it rose slightly from 21% to 21.2%, and at comprehensives 19.3% to 19.4%.

Furthermore, the regional disparities have remained unchanged, with London and the South East ahead of other regions of England, with more than a quarter of entries scoring at least a grade 7 (London 28.5%, South East 24.7%), while the North East remains the region with the lowest level of top grades. When looking at pass rates, all regions have seen drops, but the West Midlands, which had the lowest rate of passes last year, has dropped the most.

As a charity focused on tackling educational inequality across London, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester, we see firsthand how multiple forms of disadvantage overlap and shape individual experiences from a young age, particularly for those furthest from opportunity. In order to close these gaps, there is a real need for investment in children, young people and their education, and for programmes like ours who work closely with teachers and schools to enable all students to reach their full potential.

We believe that where you start in life shouldn’t determine your future and every young person should have the chance to succeed. Our diverse mentors, aged just 18-25, give a year to volunteering in schools to help all children achieve their potential but we also support those young people themselves to develop as leaders, gaining invaluable experience, skills and networks for their future careers. Every child and young person is born with potential – they just need the right opportunity to develop it.