The Harris Group

The government has published data showing the performance of secondary schools across England in GCSEs this summer.

This year, over 4,000 pupils from 24 Harris academies sat for GCSEs. The government's data shows they progressed faster at Harris and outperformed pupils nationally on every academic measure:

                                                               * 2019 national rate, as none provided for 2022

Progress 8 measures the progress made by Year 11 pupils since primary school in eight key subjects. The key points to note on our scores are:

•  Our GCSE cohort progressed significantly more during secondary school than they would have been expected to, given their attainment at primary school.
•  On average, they achieved more than three GCSE grades better with Harris than they would have got elsewhere. 
• Our disadvantaged pupils didn’t just make more progress than other disadvantaged pupils nationally (whose negative Progress 8 score indicates their GCSE results were worse than they should have been based on their starting points), they made more progress than ALL pupils nationally. 
•   15 Harris academies came amongst the top third of schools in their borough for Progress 8.

The EBacc is a suite of subjects considered essential to many degrees and career opportunities - maths, English, science, a humanity and a language.  A third of Harris pupils passed GCSEs in all these subjects, more than twice the national rate despite our disproportionately disadvantaged intake with lower attainment at primary school.

In Thurrock, Essex, Harris Academy Chafford Hundred came top of all secondary schools in the borough both for Progress 8 and EBacc – closely followed by Harris Academy Riverside which came third and Harris Academy Ockendon which came fourth.

Harris Academy St John's Wood and Harris Boys’ Academy East Dulwich were both ranked in the top 100 of all 3,500 schools in England for progress made by disadvantaged pupils.   

Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich and Harris Academy Bermondsey were ranked 78^th and 92^nd respectively for the progress of pupils in English.

Congratulations are due to all Harris pupils and staff for an excellent set of results, achieved despite the challenges and setbacks of the pandemic.  It’s one thing to get great Progress 8 scores, but it’s much harder to do it with strong success in the EBacc subjects. 

These results will be life-changing for pupils, enabling them to thrive in great A Level courses and, two years later, the degrees, apprenticeships or careers of their choice.  We look forward to seeing this cohort go from strength to strength.