Exam Results & Academic Performance
Understanding a school's academic performance is a crucial step for any parent. The data presented here is based on the official 2024-2025 Department for Education (DfE) dataset. We break down what these numbers mean in plain English and how Avonbourne Girls Academy compares to both local schools in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) area and national benchmarks.
Attainment 8
What it measures: Attainment 8 calculates a student's average achievement across eight core qualifications, including English and Maths. It gives a broad picture of how well students perform academically across a varied curriculum.
For 2024-2025, the school achieved an Attainment 8 score of 53. This is a strong performance, placing the academy above the BCP all-school average of 50.77 and the non-selective average of 46.44. It ranks 8 of 22 out of all 22 secondary-phase schools in the BCP dataset, which includes grammar schools. Nationally, the England state-funded mainstream mean for the previous year was 46.3, indicating that the school is performing well above the national standard. When looking at year-on-year progress, the score has improved from 48.7 in 2023-2024.
It is also important to consider the performance of disadvantaged pupils. The school's Disadvantaged Attainment 8 score is 43, highlighting the ongoing effort to close the attainment gap and ensure all students, regardless of background, achieve their potential.
Progress 8
What it measures: Progress 8 is a value-added measure. It tracks the progress students make from the end of primary school (Key Stage 2) to the end of secondary school (Key Stage 4), compared to pupils across England with similar starting points. A score above 0 means students made more progress than average.
Note: Progress 8 data was not published for the 2024-2025 cohort because they did not sit Key Stage 2 assessments due to the pandemic. Therefore, the figure shown here is the most recent available, from the 2023-2024 academic year.
The school's Progress 8 score is 0.4, with a confidence interval between 0.17 and 0.62. This positive score means that, on average, students at this academy made significantly more progress than their peers nationally (where the benchmark is exactly 0). Locally, it is above the BCP average of 0.18, ranking 7 of 21 out of all 21 BCP secondary schools.
The "Basics" Measure
What it measures: This shows the percentage of students achieving a passing grade in both English and Mathematics GCSEs. A "strong pass" is considered a Grade 5 or above, while a "standard pass" is Grade 4 or above.
At this academy, 61.7% of the 1188-strong cohort achieved a Grade 9-5 in English and Maths, an improvement from 59.7% in the previous year. Furthermore, 79.3% achieved a Grade 9-4, demonstrating a high level of core competency among the student body.
The English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
What it measures: The EBacc is a set of subjects at GCSE that keeps young people's options open for further study and future careers (English, Maths, Sciences, a Language, and History or Geography). The Average Point Score (APS) calculates the average grade achieved across these specific subjects.
Here, 51.4% of students were entered for the EBacc. The resulting Average Point Score (APS) was 4.75, which is higher than the BCP all-school average of 4.56 and ranks 8 of 22 across all BCP secondary schools.
For more details on academic programs, please consult the school's official website.