Rise in ‘good pass’ rates in GCSE English and maths in Cambridgeshire

The number of Cambridgeshire students achieving a “good pass” in both GCSE English and maths rose to over 50 per cent last year, according to Cambridgeshire County Council.

But a council report for its children and young people committee said that owing to the disruption of the pandemic and the changes to the way grades were allocated “extreme caution should be used when comparing this year’s outcomes with those of previous years”.

The report said that following the “widespread anomalies and injustices” in the outcomes produced by the initial pandemic grading system, the government “U-turn” led to students receiving either centre assessed grades or algorithm-based grades, which was higher.

Even so, the report said that under the system used last year Cambridgeshire students outperformed the national average.

The number of Cambridgeshire students achieving a “good pass” in both GCSE English and maths, between a grade five and grade nine, was 51.2 per cent in 2020 – up from 47.7 per cent the year before, and 46.1 in 2018. The 51.2 per cent in Cambridgeshire compares with 49.9 per cent of pupils nationally at state funded schools including academies.

At district level South Cambridgeshire had the highest percentage of pupils awarded a good pass in both GCSE English and maths in the county, with 63.3 per cent, whereas Fenland had the lowest in the county, with 36.1 per cent.