Record-Breaking GCSE Results

TODAY WE ARE CELEBRATING A RECORD-BREAKING YEAR OF GCSE RESULTS, WITH STUDENTS ACHIEVING THE SCHOOL'S STRONGEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE IN A GENERATION AND DEMONSTRATING THE EXCEPTIONAL ACADEMIC POTENTIAL OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE NORTH EAST.

Our Year 11 students have achieved remarkable results, with: 

• 94.8%1 grades 6-9 (equivalent to B-A*) 

• 85.4% grades 7-9 (equivalent to A-A*) 

• 68.8% grades 8-9 (equivalent to A*), and  

• 43% at the highest possible grade 9.  

The cohort of 149 students sat a total of 1519 exams. Thirteen of the students achieved a full set of grade 9s, 65 (43% of the year group) achieved straight 7-9 grades. 

The results represent a particularly significant achievement in a school where academic attainment is already exceptionally high. They place RGS in the top 1% of schools nationally for ‘Value Added’ a powerful reflection of its enduring legacy of academic excellence.  

The results also demonstrate strong performance across the entire cohort, with the school simultaneously stretching its highest achievers and supporting students at all levels of ability to achieve excellent grades. This breadth of success is particularly significant in a school already performing at such a high level, where further improvements become increasingly difficult to achieve. 

• Girls continue to demonstrate they are stretched and challenged at RGS achieving 45.5% of grades at grade 9, 69.1% at grades 9-8, 87.5% at grades 9-7 and 96.1% at grades 9-6.  
   

• Boys too performed exceptionally strongly, with 41.2% of grades at grade 9, 68.4% at grades 9-8, 83.7% at grades 9-7 and 93.7% at grades 9-6. The results demonstrate the consistently high performance of both groups and an encouraging narrowing of the attainment gap.
   

• The strength of the results is also evident among students receiving additional support, students with SEND achieved 43.8% grades 9, 63% grades 9-8 and 83.5% grades 9-7. 
   

• Students in receipt of bursaries achieved 53.4% grades 9, 81.8% grades 9-8 and 96.6% grades 9-7, showing that academic potential is not determined by postcode. 
   

• The results also offer a powerful reminder of the academic potential of young people in the North East. 
   

At a time when there is considerable discussion about the educational and economic North-South divide, the achievements of this cohort demonstrate that geography should be no barrier to academic excellence. 
 

These students have shown that young people in the North East can compete with the very best nationally, achieving results at a level that would be exceptional anywhere in the country.  

Geoffrey Stanford, Head of RGS Newcastle, said: “At RGS Newcastle we are proud to be educating young people from across the North East who have the ambition and ability to achieve at the highest levels. We are working hard to ensure that opportunity is available to students from a wide range of backgrounds through our bursary provision and partnership programme. 

“The record-breaking results are therefore more than an outstanding set of GCSE grades. They are a celebration of the ability, ambition, resilience and determination of young people in the North East, and a powerful demonstration that talent and academic potential are found everywhere.” 

We would like to congratulate all of our Year 11 students on their outstanding achievements and thank the teachers, support staff, parents and wider RGS community who have supported them throughout their GCSE journey. 

Students and families reconsidering their Sixth Form options after receiving GCSE results are warmly invited to drop in between 10am and 1pm on Thursday 21st August to find out more about life at RGS Sixth Form.