Record grades across Hackney as academies report best-ever GCSE results

Schools across Hackney have reported record GCSE results today, with several academies claiming their best ever outcomes and one publishing an average attainment 8 score of 6.69.

Hackney Council said provisional results showed a significant improvement on 2025, with substantial increases in the proportion of students achieving grades 4 and above and grades 5 and above in both English and maths. The Town Hall said the figures placed the borough above emerging national and London averages. It said the results remained provisional pending national checking and validation.

The strongest published figures came from Mossbourne Community Academy in Downs Park Road, where 21 per cent of all grades were awarded at grade 9 and 56 per cent at grade 7 or above. 

Some 88 per cent of students achieved the basics measure – a grade 4 or above in both English and maths – with 81 per cent reaching grade 5 or above in the same subjects. 

Fourteen students recorded a perfect attainment 8 score of 9.00, the highest possible average across their best eight qualifications, and just over half achieved at least one grade 9.

Rebecca Warren, principal at the academy, said the cohort had “set new records” and pointed to what she described as an exceptionally small gap between disadvantaged students and their peers, which she said showed “that excellence and equity can go hand in hand”.

No excuses

At Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy on Victoria Park Road, 76 per cent of students achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths and 86 per cent reached grade 4 or above in the two subjects. 

Nearly a fifth of all grades awarded were 9s, rising to 31 per cent in art and 29 per cent in English. Filip Pelemis Hukic secured 11 grade 9s, with Roldan Diangkinay and Katya Flynn each achieving 10.

Matthew Toothe, principal at the academy, said 51 per cent of the academy’s students were economically disadvantaged and 19 per cent had special educational needs, and that the results “represent success for our whole community, providing young people with the opportunities they deserve to improve their life chances”.

The City Academy, Hackney recorded its best ever GCSE results, a week after its best ever A-level outcomes. The school did not publish percentages, but said a number of students had achieved straight 9s, among them Year 11 pupil Anna. 

Anna Sarchet, principal at the school, said the year group was “a wonderful cohort who have created such a positive, supportive culture together”.

Mark Emmerson, chief executive of City of London Academies Trust, which runs the school, said the year had seen the trust commended by the education secretary for the outcomes of its most disadvantaged pupils. The trust educates more than 3,000 young people across east London and is sponsored by the City of London Corporation.

Sciences

At Cardinal Pole Catholic School in Homerton, 70 per cent of students secured at least a grade 4 in English and maths and close to half achieved grade 5 or above in both. 

In biology, chemistry and physics, 79 per cent of students achieved grade 5 or above, while three quarters of grades in 3D design were awarded at 7 or higher. Seven students achieved grades of 7 or above in every subject they sat.

Adam Hall, executive headteacher, said the day was “a celebration not only of excellent grades, but of the compassionate, ambitious and respectful young people our students have become”.

Clapton Girls’ Academy, where council representatives spent results morning, attributed its performance to a pastoral scheme introduced this year. 

Under the academy’s “cheerleader system”, every member of staff was paired with one or two Year 11 students for weekly check-ins on their wellbeing.

Amelia Stewart-Parker, assistant headteacher for key stage 4, who introduced the scheme, said it helped students “feel seen every day”. 

The headteacher, Anna Feltham, who took on a group herself, said the conversations ran across the whole of Year 11 and formed a bond, describing it as one of the highlights of her year.

Lucy Bennett, head of Year 11, credited the results to positive relationships across the cohort. “They really believed they could do it, and they told each other they could do it,” she said.

Nationally

Nationally, the picture barely moved. Figures published today by the Joint Council for Qualifications show 22 per cent of GCSE entries across England, Wales and Northern Ireland were awarded grade 7 or above, up from 21.9 per cent last year, while 67.3 per cent achieved grade 4 or above, marginally down on 2025.

Comparisons between schools should be treated with caution: the figures released by individual academies use different measures, some reporting the share of grades awarded and others the share of students reaching a threshold. Verified school-level data will not be published by the Department for Education until later in the year.

Soraya Adejare, cabinet member for children, young people and early intervention, and Laura-Louise Fairley, deputy cabinet member for SEND support, said in a joint statement that students’ futures were “shaped by your passion as much as the results you achieved today”, and pointed young people unsure of their next steps towards the council’s schools, youth hubs and partner organisations.