City's primary and secondary school results improve

Improvements across primary and secondary education in Peterborough mean school results are within "touching distance" of the national average, the city council has been told.

The outcomes for pupils in the 2024/25 academic year were presented to councillors in a children and young people scrutiny committee meeting on Monday.

Nick Beech, head of school improvement at the authority, said there was "quite a lot of good news to celebrate".

He said: "We are making good, strong progress with our schools."

On primary school achievements, Beech said the city was the "most improved local authority" in the region for reading, writing and maths in early years at the end of Key Stage 2.

He added: "The trajectory of the improvement continues in phonics, as well."

However, Peterborough remains below the national average.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said Beech described primary education in the city as a "really striking place" at the moment.

"This is the culmination of several years' worth of work that is now feeding itself through into the outcomes that children are achieving when they leave primary school," he said.

Despite some improvements, provisional Key Stage 4 outcomes for GCSE performances in English and maths showed 59.3% of pupils achieved grades 9 to 4 in both subjects, below the 65% achieved nationally.

Meanwhile, 39.1% of pupils achieved grades 9 to 5 in English and maths, representing an improvement of 1.5% from the previous year, although that figure was behind the national average of 45.6%.

Beech said the improvements meant pupils in Peterborough were within "touching distance" of the national average.

"These figures are all within reach," he said.

"We have good things going on."

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