You got an ology! GCSE joy for Jewish schools

Jewish schools are celebrating the achievements of their Year 11 students following another strong set of GCSE and vocational qualification results.

All year 11 students were able to view their results in an app for the first time this summer following a successful trial last year.

Of the Jewish schools sharing their results, Yavneh College in Borehamwood reported the highest rate (32%) of pupils achieving between the top levels of Grade 8 and 9. Forty eight percent of results were in the Grades 7-9 range and overall, 81% within the Grade 5 to 9 band.

Executive headteacher, Mr Spencer Lewis said: “We are very proud of the Yavneh College Year 11 pupils who have done so well in their GCSEs again this year. They have worked very hard and fully deserve their success. I could not be happier for the pupils, particularly all those who, like in last week’s exceptional A Level results have made such a huge amount of progress over the last few years.”

Praising their students “superb” performance “significantly above national, London and Barnet averages”, JCoSS said their achievements “demonstrate not only academic excellence but also the determination and perseverance that our students have shown throughout their studies”.

Nearly half of all grades, (48%) there were awarded a Grade 7 or higher, including 29% at the top Grades 8 or 9. Ninety one percent of results were Grade 4 or above, and 82% of results were awarded a Grade 5 or higher.

Headteacher Dr Melanie Lee said: “Today is first and foremost a celebration of our students and everything they have achieved. All of us at JCoSS are immensely proud of these young people and of the commitment, resilience and determination they have shown throughout their GCSE journey. These results are a testament not only to the hard work of our young people, but also to the dedication of the staff who have encouraged, challenged and guided them throughout their time at JCoSS.”

Lee added that the school was “particularly delighted to celebrate those students who have achieved the very highest grades, alongside those whose progress has been exceptional and whose outcomes far exceeded their individual targets”.

JFS in Harrow has reported “one of our strongest set of GCSE results ever”, with one in five grades at Grade 9, 55% of all exams at Grade 7 or higher and overall, 86% of all grades at a Grade 5 or higher.

93% of students achieved Grade 4 or above in both English and maths, while 83% achieved Grade 5 or above, and 46% achieved Grade 7 or above in both subjects.

Headteacher Dr David Moody said: “These are exceptional results and hopefully do justice to the extraordinary amount of hard work put in by our students and staff throughout the year. In a school of JFS’s size, achieving results of this standard across such a large cohort is fantastic and we could not be more proud of everyone involved.

“Behind every statistic are hundreds of individual students whose determination, ambition and resilience have brought them to this point and they have our heartfelt congratulations! As always, our gratitude also goes to all our families for all the support that they have given to both the school and their children over the years, and I hope that they are as proud as we are of everything that they have achieved! Well done to everyone!”

Immanuel College in Bushey, now under the leadership of headteacher Christopher Jones, reported strong results across a broad range of subjects, with a number of excellent individual performances across this year’s cohort.

Mindful of the “challenging year” the school faced amidst its near closure before an 11th hour £12 million rescue deal, the school said the results for the 68 pupils were “especially impressive”, with 23.6% achieving the top Grade 9; 42.9% achieving between Grades 8 and 9, and nearly 61% in the top level range between Grades 7 and 9.

For the third year in a row, a GCSE Photography student received the top marks in the country and 10 students received Grade 7-9s in all subjects.

Jones said: “Today is about celebrating our Year 11 students and everything they have achieved during their time at Immanuel. They have worked extremely hard and should be very proud of their results. There are some excellent individual achievements across this year’s cohort and strong performances in a number of subjects. These successes reflect the determination of our students and the commitment and support of our teaching staff.”

Nationally, more students aged 17 and above took English and maths this year – likely driven by pupils having to retake those subjects after failing to achieve the key pass rate – but results have worsened.

The proportion of post-16 UK entries for English rose by 6.5% on last year, but the rate of scoring a decent pass decreased by 1.4 percentage points. For maths, the proportion of entries increased by 5.8% but the rate of achieving a 4 was down 1.7 percentage points on 2025.

Education Secretary Lucy Powell said repeated resits lead to us “branding (students) as a failure” and affecting self-confidence.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That’s why we’re going to be looking at that, and I’m going to be bringing in a new stepping stone qualification, as we’re calling it, a level one… in maths and in English, so that there is an additional qualification that young people can work towards. And I want to work with employers to make sure that that qualification is credible, is respected, and that employers see that as sufficient or more than sufficient for young people to go on to do things like an apprenticeship in construction or health and social care.”

The gap in top grades between London – the best performing region – and the North East – the worst performing – has widened to a record high of 10.9 percentage points up from 10.6 last year.