How a Sunderland School Beat the Odds on GCSE Results
Hetton Academy in Sunderland draws pupils from a mostly white, working-class community, and nearly half receive free school meals. Even so, 80% of them got at least a grade 4 in maths and English this summer. The result landed in the same week an independent inquiry into why such children fall behind began its second phase.
From struggling school to school of choice
The school opened in the 1960s as Hetton School. After the Eppleton mine closed in the 1980s, the town of Hetton-le-Hole was hit hard, and the school had weak results for years. It became common for families to send children elsewhere.
Ofsted rated it "requires improvement" in 2021. By 2024 inspectors called it "rapidly improving". This year's 80% beats the English averages of 57% for maths and 60% for English. Principal Vicky Pinkney says Hetton is now the "school of choice" locally.
She will not accept that a poor community should mean poor results. "I don't think we should be accepting less just because of the community you work in," she says.
Mornings, evenings and Sundays
Year 11 pupils walk in along their own entrance path, with teachers standing along it. Staff pull a few aside for a quick quiz on their subject and work a problem out on a whiteboard. It is friendly, but who gets stopped is decided at regular review meetings.
After school, all pupils can stay for an hour of extra study on four days a week. Someone struggling with maths could spend two of those hours on it. In the run-up to exams, 'Revision Sundays' bring Year 11 in for a top-up session and a shared roast lunch.
Parents get their turn. Those with a Year 11 child are invited to a "Fish and Tips" evening, where they receive advice on supporting learning and a bag of revision resources. The booklets and stationery differ from one pupil to the next. Pinkney and her colleagues then sit down with them in the canteen for a fish-and-chips supper that the school pays for.
Pinkney says parents see her as "just another Mam" who wants children to do their best. She adds that some may carry bad memories of school, or never needed qualifications to find work.
Factors outside the school's control
Only 339 non-selective schools in England averaged an 80% pass rate in the two subjects over the three years to 2025, out of around 3,000 that published data. That group tends to have fewer pupils from the lowest-income families and fewer with special educational needs. Its schools are also less often in deprived areas and have fewer White British pupils. Hetton stands out as an exception.
Prof John Jerrim of University College London says England's system is failing poorer pupils. The chance of the poorest children passing these key exams has barely moved since 2010, even as the GCSE overhaul was widely seen as lifting standards. "It's really hard to move the dial," he says.
The North East also came bottom of the English table for top marks this year. Ofqual figures show 3% of its GCSEs earned a grade 9, compared with 8% in London. On other measures, the region ranked better.
Why families drift away from school
Prof Lindsey Macmillan was involved in the inquiry led by Baroness Morris. She says pupils start school behind and the gap grows through secondary school as disengagement spreads. The inquiry found that for white working-class families the link with school collapses at the move to secondary, and attendance suffers.
Some parents told the inquiry they had not needed qualifications to get a job. Pinkney hears the same message in Hetton-le-Hole. Macmillan says qualifications matter more now than in earlier decades, when industry offered more well-paid routes and more on-the-job training. Jerrim thinks schools should show families clearly how qualifications help children find work.
According to the inquiry, parents in these areas want a lot for their children, yet often set happiness and being ready for life level with good grades, or higher. Macmillan asks why a system was built in which maths and English GCSEs weigh so heavily on life chances. She wants the government to look at more entry-level apprenticeships and other on-the-job learning.
Education Secretary Lucy Powell has said too many white, working-class children lag at each stage of schooling.
Could other schools repeat Hetton's results? Pinkney says absolutely. For her it is personal: her mother raised her alone on little money, and she still did well at school.
Source: BBC News