The Harris Group

Huge congratulations are due to Harris sixth formers who collected their results today as well as the hard-working and talented staff who taught and supported them.

As things stand today, with further detail and some re-marks still to come, the headlines are:

• Our Average Point Score per entry across all qualification types is, at 32.6, up on last year;
• 29% of our students achieved an A or A* grade;
• 61% of our most economically disadvantaged students are going to university, and 15% of these have Russell Group places. This compares to fewer than 20% of disadvantaged students nationally going to any university; 
• The Average Point Score of our disadvantaged students in all qualification types is higher than other disadvantaged pupils nationally (compared to 2023).

In total, there are at least 46 students from the Harris Federation going to Oxford or Cambridge, with 41 of these from Harris Westminster.  Among these are many students who’ve faced significant hardship and difficulty, including Harris Westminster’s Zain and David who are featured in today’s Evening Standard.

Congratulations to Harry from Harris Academy Ockendon.  He is the first student to go to Cambridge since the site opened as a school seventy years ago – a symbolic achievement for the academy, and just one example of the terrific achievements of its students this year.  

Isaac, from Harris Academy Beckenham, and Emilia from Harris Academy Bromley, are also the first from their schools to go to Cambridge after securing 4 A* grades and two As between them. You can listen to Sam Rigby, Principal of Harris Girls’ Academy Bromley, speak more widely about his school’s results on BBC Radio London here (at 1h35m).

There are at least 51 Harris students with places for medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine, a Federation record.

This reflects a general trend towards STEM subjects.  At Harris Clapham Sixth Form alone, we have students with places for Physics with Theoretical Physics, Materials Science and Engineering, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Chemistry, Biomedical Science and Bioveterinary Science – all at top-ranked universities.

Special STEM-recognition must go to siblings Zishen and Ziyin, in Year 8 and Year 9 of Harris Academy Greenwich, who both took Physics, Maths and Further Maths early to achieve A*A*A – fulfilling incredible potential despite their age. Watch this space in future years to see where their achievements take them!

In its first year with the Harris Federation, Harris Lowe Academy Willesden achieved its strongest results yet with 90% of students securing a place at their university of choice and a quarter within the Russell Group.  Two years after joining the Harris Federation, Harris Science Academy East London are celebrating a fantastic improvement with the average pass up by more than a grade and students with places on great courses and universities.  

Every year we have many students who demonstrate powerful resilience and determination to overcome the hardest of personal challenges. These students all deserve so much credit and praise, but here are just three examples:

•   A student made temporarily homeless this year before being housed miles away from his academy. Despite these challenges he still managed to get to school and achieved an excellent set of results to secure his first choice university;
•   A student, new to the country from Ukraine, who despite the trauma of war in her country worked incredibly hard to secure a place at the University of the Arts, London, to study Illustration and Visual Media;
•   Several students who are either grieving for parents who have died, or who need to care for unwell parents or siblings, and yet have achieved great outcomes, often really excelling – we wish them so well for their futures.    

Our vocational students have performed excellently with an eclectic range of destinations including:

•   Gesa from Harris Academy Chobham who achieved strong results in her A Levels, which was no easy feat given that she spent the past two years committing to the schedule of a full-time student at Arsenal’s Professional Game Academy. With aspirations to study to degree-level in future, for now Gesa has signed a two-year contract with the London City Lionesses.
•   Syed from Harris Boys’ Academy East Dulwich, Huma from Harris Academy Merton and Daniel from Harris Academy Riverside, who've won places on the highly competitive Degree Apprenticeships at Deloitte, UBS and PwC.
•   Hrishikesh from Harris Academy Purley - pursuing a Degree Apprenticeship at British Airways.
•   Elvis, who after moving home mid-way through the year commuted two-hours each day to get to Harris Academy South Norwood, and is now looking forward to studying Business and Management at the University of Kent.

And last but definitely not least we want to mention Amy from the Harris Sixth Form at East Dulwich who is taking up the brand-new Harris Apprenticeship, here at our HQ in Croydon. Amy, you impressed everyone so much during your application and we cannot wait to have you on-board!