Woodcote's best ever, Riddlesdown 29% at grades 9-7, Trinity 44% at grade 9. Croydon's published GCSE figures, and the benchmark the council left out.

Croydon Council says most of the borough’s secondary schools improved on last year’s GCSE results, but it has published no figures to show it. Four Croydon schools have put real numbers on their own websites. This is what they say, and what those numbers can and cannot be compared with.

Results were issued on Thursday 20 August. The council’s statement the following day said “the majority of the borough’s secondary schools are reporting an improvement on last year’s results, with Croydon closing the gap with national results”. It quoted students at Orchard Park High School in Shirley, The Archbishop Lanfranc Academy in Thornton Heath and Meridian High School in New Addington. It gave no percentage for the borough, and no figure for any school.

The Croydon schools that published numbers

These come from each school’s own website. They are not comparable with each other, for reasons set out below.

  • Woodcote High School, Coulsdon: 71% of students achieved grade 4 or above in English and maths, and 55% achieved grade 5 or above. Nearly a quarter of all grades were 9 to 7. The school calls it its best ever set of results and its highest Attainment 8 score to date.
  • Riddlesdown Collegiate, Purley: 29% of all grades were 9 to 7, up from 22% last year. Students earned 155 grade 9s. On the core subjects, 63% secured grades 9 to 5 in both English and maths, and 81% achieved grades 9 to 4.
  • Trinity School, Shirley Park (independent): 44% of all grades were awarded at grade 9, in a year group of 138 students. 71% of grades were at 9 or 8, and 86% at 9 to 7. The school says it is its second-best performance outside the Covid-affected years.
  • Whitgift, South Croydon (independent): 42% of all grades at grade 9, 69% at grade 8 or 9, and 88% at grade 7 or above. More than 1,500 grades were awarded at 8 or 9.

Orchard Park High School in Shirley says attainment, progress, the percentage of students achieving grade 4 and grade 5 in both English and maths, and the number of grades at 7 to 9 have all risen. It published no percentages. Harris Academy South Norwood, Oasis Academy Shirley Park and Shirley High School each posted results-day celebrations without figures.

There is no official Croydon-wide GCSE figure

Ofqual publishes the national statistics on results day, in Qualification results in England: summer 2026. Its data tables break GCSE outcomes down by region and by type of school. They do not break them down by local authority.

Ofqual does run an interactive map showing outcomes by local authority district. Its own notes warn that schools are assigned to areas by the postcode of the exam centre, not by where students live. In a borough with large selective and independent schools, that measures a different population from the one the council is responsible for.

So when the council says Croydon is “closing the gap”, there is no published borough figure a resident can check it against. The council’s statement does not say which measure it is using, or which national number it is closing the gap on.

The benchmark that actually applies to Croydon

Councils across the country compared their results this week against an England figure of 67.0%. That number is real, but it is the all-ages England figure, and it is dragged down by the hundreds of thousands of students resitting English and maths at colleges. A Year 11 cohort in Croydon contains almost none of that.

Croydon is in London, and London is the strongest region in the country. The fair comparison is the London 16-year-old row.

Benchmark, summer 2026 Grade 4 and above Grade 7 and above
England, all ages 67.0% 21.8%
England, 16-year-olds 70.7% 23.1%
London, all ages 71.7% 28.6%
London, 16-year-olds 75.5% 30.2%

Source: Ofqual data tables 19a and 19b. London’s 16-year-old figure is up from 75.1% last year, and is the highest of any English region.

Bar chart of four GCSE benchmarks for summer 2026: England all ages 67.0% at grade 4 and above, England 16-year-olds 70.7%, London all ages 71.7%, and London 16-year-olds 75.5%, with the grade 7 and above figures alongside.
Croydon sits in the bottom row. Graphic by Croydon Today.

The gap between the top and bottom rows is 8.5 percentage points. A school measured against 67.0% will look considerably better than the same school measured against 75.5%. Both numbers are published by the same body, on the same day, in the same file.

Why the school figures above cannot be ranked

Read the four lists again and you will see they are not measuring the same thing:

  • Woodcote reports the percentage of students reaching a threshold in English and maths.
  • Riddlesdown and the two independent schools report the percentage of grades at a level.
  • Trinity and Whitgift are fee-charging and academically selective. Riddlesdown and Woodcote are non-selective state schools.

Ofqual’s own table by school type shows how far apart those starting points are. In 2026, 97.4% of grades at grammar schools were 4 or above, and 88.4% at independent schools, against 68.6% at local authority comprehensives and 68.2% at academies. Sixth form colleges recorded 32.2% and further education establishments 17.6%, because those are overwhelmingly resit centres rather than Year 11 cohorts.

Putting a selective independent school’s grade-9 share next to a comprehensive’s English and maths pass rate produces a league table of intake, not of teaching.

What it means for you

If a grade looks wrong, there are two services, and both close on 24 September 2026. A clerical re-check is returned within 10 calendar days. A review of marking is returned within 20. The JCQ deadlines are firm. Two things families regularly get wrong:

  • The request goes through the school’s exams officer, with the student’s written consent. You cannot apply directly to the exam board.
  • There is no grade protection. A reviewed grade can go down as well as up.

The priority review of marking that closed on 20 August does not cover GCSE. It applies only to A level, AS and Level 3 vocational qualifications.

If you are resitting English or maths, the November series runs in the first full week of the month. On the Pearson Edexcel timetable, all papers are in the morning:

  • English Language Paper 1: Tuesday 3 November
  • Maths Paper 1 (non-calculator): Wednesday 4 November
  • English Language Paper 2: Thursday 5 November
  • Maths Paper 2 (calculator): Friday 6 November
  • Maths Paper 3 (calculator): Monday 9 November

Entries go through a school or college, so speak to the exams officer rather than the board. Students aged 16 to 18 without a grade 4 in English or maths are normally required to keep studying the subject as a condition of their post-16 funding.

If you are unsure about your next step, Croydon Council’s Post 16 Participation Team can be reached on 020 8726 7485 or at Post16@croydon.gov.uk.

Croydon’s A level and vocational results were published a week earlier, and we covered them in Croydon A-level results 2026.

Sources