London is far outstripping the north in GCSE results

After two years of pandemic-related disruption, GCSEs were this year assessed in the same way as before Covid – i.e. by an outside examination board, rather than by teachers. London far outstripped the north of England when it came to pupils getting the highest grades, with 33 per cent of pupils in the capital being awarded a 7 (formerly an A) or above compared with just 22 per cent in the north-east. This widened the attainment gap from 2019 – then, there was a ten percentage point gap between the regions, compared with 11 percentage points this year.

That London has far outstripped the north of the country – again – speaks to the failure of the government’s commitment to ‘levelling up’: it was the same story last week with A level results. Labour this morning said the Conservative government had ‘failed’ children. The Lib Dems went further, saying the government ‘deserves an F for letting down these pupils’.