Strong performance from Bury pupils in GCSEs

Bury’s young people have again performed well above the national average in their GCSEs.

In terms of 5 A*-C passes including English and maths, Bury schools improved from 62.8% in 2011 to 63.3% in 2012. This is 4.5% above the performance of all state-funded schools in England. Bury’s improvement occurred despite a 4% fall in GCSE English passes (from 74.9% to 70.9%) that was caused by the Government requiring the examination boards to impose higher grade boundaries in English for A*-C passes.

In contrast, maths passes in Bury rose from 68.4% to 72%, some 2.7% above the national average. Also, the overall 5 A*-C pass rate for Bury young people went up by nearly 3% to 83.7%, which is 1% above the national average.

Schools are also judged using a measure based upon the proposed English Baccalaureate – which covers A*-C passes in English, mathematics, two sciences, a humanity (history or geography) and a modern foreign language. In Bury, some 21% of young people achieved A*-C passes in all those areas compared with 16.2% in state-funded schools nationally. 

Councillor Nick Parnell, cabinet member for children and families, said: “All our young people are to be congratulated for their performance in the GCSEs, and teachers praised for their work in preparing their classes for the examinations. Bury’s schools are in a strong position to take on the challenges of the new types of examination and new syllabuses that are coming in the next two years.” 

ENDS

Press release issued: 29 January 2013.