City of Leicester College and Rushey Mead Academy are the only two of Leicester's 22 state-funded secondaries that entered pupils for GCSE Economics in 2024/25 - where every other school stands, and where to study A-level Economics instead.
Book a Free ConsultationGCSE Economics is a small-entry qualification that, in Leicester, only two of the city's 22 state-funded secondary schools actually enter pupils for: City of Leicester College, with 25 entries in 2024/25, and Rushey Mead Academy, with 45. Together those 70 entries are just 1.5% of Leicester City's 4,523 state-funded Year 11 pupils in 2024/25, and the Department for Education's own data records both schools' entries only as 'GCSE', naming no exam board.
Whichever of Leicester's two state-funded GCSE Economics schools your child attends - or if their school doesn't teach it at all - our expert GCSE Economics tutors help students across Leicester build a programme around AQA or OCR, whichever board their own school has actually entered them for.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppLeicester City's 22 state-funded secondary schools were individually checked in the Department for Education's 2024/25 subjects-entered data for this page - not taken from a single published total - and only two return a GCSE Economics entry of any kind. City of Leicester College's own subjects-entered table records 25 entries under the subject heading 'Economics', qualification column 'GCSE', against 270 pupils at the end of key stage 4 - a 9.3% entry rate. Rushey Mead Academy's own table records 45 entries, also under 'Economics' / 'GCSE', against 322 pupils - a 14.0% rate, the higher of the two.
DfE's own data does not say which exam board either school actually uses: the qualification column at both schools reads only 'GCSE', with no board named anywhere on either page, and neither school's own website named one in the course of this research. That is a genuine gap in the published data, not an oversight on this page's part - so this page does not guess. Nationally, only two boards publish a domestic GCSE in Economics at all, established on this site's own GCSE Economics guide: AQA (specification code 8136) and OCR (specification code J205). Neither is asserted as either Leicester school's own choice.
| School | GCSE Economics entries (2024/25) | KS4 pupils | Entry rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rushey Mead Academy | 45 | 322 | 14.0% |
| City of Leicester College | 25 | 270 | 9.3% |
Both establishments are recorded as open on the Department for Education's Get Information about Schools register, checked on 16 September 2026: City of Leicester College under URN 148878, and Rushey Mead Academy under URN 141916. Between them, the two schools account for all 70 of Leicester City's state-funded GCSE Economics entries this page found - a genuinely small, two-school landscape rather than the 14-school spread this site's Leicester GCSE Business Studies page found for the neighbouring subject.
The remaining 20 of Leicester City's 22 state-funded secondaries show no 'Economics' row at all in their own 2024/25 subjects-entered data, including Soar Valley College - this site's Leicester GCSE Business Studies page's own largest zero-entry school, and the city's biggest secondary by cohort at 309 pupils. Soar Valley College is recorded as open on the Get Information about Schools register (URN 148877), checked 16 September 2026.
An absent row is not automatically the same as a suppressed one, so this page tested the reading rather than asserting it. Tudor Grange Samworth Academy's own GCSE Business Studies row - already published, with its own source, on this site's Leicester GCSE Business Studies page - reads a plain, unflagged single entry: 1 pupil out of the school's 123-strong cohort. DfE's own suppression marker appears nowhere on that row; the only place the word 'suppress' appears on these pages at all is inside DfE's generic policy guidance text, never attached to an actual subject figure. That single-pupil, unsuppressed row is this page's test that the Department's subjects-entered table records genuine entries down to one person rather than hiding them - which is why an absent 'Economics' row across Leicester's other 20 state-funded secondaries is read here as a real recorded zero, a school DfE has checked and found nobody entered, not a hidden or rounded-away figure.
Independent schools are a different case, and this page checked rather than assumed - and does not extend the state-funded zero-count to them. Six of Leicester City's eight independent schools were checked in DfE's 2024/25 data. Five of those six show a complete-looking subjects-entered list - each one including a Mathematics row and an English Language row, the same core subjects every state-funded school on this page also lists - and none of the five shows an Economics entry. The sixth, Leicester High School for Girls, is different: its own subjects-entered table lists 13 subjects but has no Mathematics row and no science row at all, unlike every other school checked for this page. A list missing a compulsory core subject cannot be read the same way a complete one can, so this page does not count Leicester High School for Girls among the confirmed zero-entry schools - its Economics status is reported as unconfirmed. The remaining two of Leicester's eight independent schools were not checked for this page at all, and no claim is made about either of them in either direction. So the honest citywide count is: 2 of Leicester's 22 state-funded secondaries enter GCSE Economics, 0 of the 5 independent schools with a complete subject list do, and 3 of Leicester's 8 independent schools remain unconfirmed either way.
If your child's school is one of the twenty state-funded secondaries that doesn't enter GCSE Economics, our expert GCSE Economics tutors still help - many Leicester families prepare independently, or start at A-level instead. Get in touch to talk through your child's route.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppBoth of Leicester's Economics entries are recorded under DfE's own qualification column as 'GCSE', at City of Leicester College and at Rushey Mead Academy alike - not as an International GCSE. That distinction matters, because this site's GCSE Economics guide already establishes that Pearson Edexcel publishes only an International GCSE in Economics, with no domestic GCSE of its own, and that Eduqas and WJEC publish no GCSE in Economics at all. A course advertised simply as 'GCSE Economics' is only the genuine domestic qualification if it leads to an AQA or OCR award; this page does not rebuild that comparison here, since the national guide already covers the AQA-versus-OCR paper structure, marking and the JCQ entry figures in full.
What this page can say locally is narrower and just as important: DfE's own subjects-entered data does not record which of the two boards either Leicester school uses, and neither school's own website named one in the course of this research. AQA's GCSE Economics (8136) and OCR's GCSE (9-1) Economics (J205) were both independently re-confirmed live on 16 September 2026, purely to establish that a domestic GCSE Economics genuinely exists as the qualification behind DfE's bare 'GCSE' label - not to assert either code as City of Leicester College's or Rushey Mead Academy's own choice. A family wanting to know for certain which board their own child sits should ask the school directly; this page reports what DfE's own data says and does not say, rather than filling the gap with a guess.
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Most Leicester schools do not teach GCSE Economics - only two of the city's 22 state-funded secondaries do - so the more useful question for most families is where a student can pick the subject up at A-level instead. Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, a large Leicester City sixth-form college, runs A-level Economics and states in its own published entry requirements: 'In addition to the standard College entry requirements (see below) this course requires students to have achieved grade 5 or above in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. It is not necessary to have previously studied Economics.' The college's own general entry requirements, published on the same page, ask for at least six GCSE passes at grade 4 or above, including two at grade 5 or above.
Leicester College, the city's main further education college, was checked sitewide for this page rather than assumed either way: its own published sitemap lists 854 course URLs and not one of them contains the word 'economic' in any form. The college's nearest subject area by name, Business, Accounting and Law, does not include Economics either.
Put together, a Leicester family whose child's school is among the 20 state-funded secondaries that do not teach GCSE Economics is not locked out of the subject at 16: Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College is a real, checked route into A-level Economics that asks only for solid English and Maths GCSEs, not the Economics GCSE itself. This page does not claim it is the only such route in the city - only that it is the one this research confirmed, with its own quoted requirement rather than an assumption carried over from a different city's sixth form.
Whether your child attends Rushey Mead Academy, City of Leicester College, or a Leicester sixth form teaching the A-level instead, our expert GCSE Economics tutors build every programme around a student's own school, board and exam papers.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppSumming City of Leicester College's 25 entries and Rushey Mead Academy's 45 gives 70 GCSE Economics entries recorded across Leicester City's state-funded secondaries in the Department for Education's 2024/25 subjects-entered data. Set against Leicester City's own published 4,523 state-funded pupils at the end of key stage 4 for 2024/25, that is a 1.5% city-wide rate - this page's own derivation, built from the same two verified school-level figures above, not a percentage DfE publishes anywhere itself.
That 1.5% figure has clear limits, stated here rather than left implicit. It is a floor, not a ceiling, and it is scoped narrowly: Leicester City's state-funded cohort only, for the single year 2024/25. It excludes the city's eight independent schools (three unconfirmed) and any student who reaches Economics later, at A-level, without ever sitting the GCSE. Derived directly from the two raw counts above, not the rounded percentage: 4,523 divided by 70 is 64.6, so roughly 1 in 65 state-funded pupils reaching the end of key stage 4 in Leicester City in 2024/25 sat GCSE Economics.
For the national picture - the AQA-versus-OCR paper structure, JCQ entry figures and whether GCSE Economics is needed before A-level Economics - see our GCSE Economics guide. For the neighbouring subject in Leicester, with its own 14-school ranking, see our Leicester GCSE Business Studies page. For related subjects and levels, see our national Economics tutoring service, our wider GCSE tuition across every subject, and our Leicester GCSE Maths page. For the full picture of tutoring across the city, see our overview of Leicester tutoring.
Two of Leicester City's 22 state-funded secondary schools recorded a GCSE Economics entry in the Department for Education's 2024/25 subjects-entered data: City of Leicester College, with 25 entries out of 270 pupils at the end of key stage 4 (9.3%), and Rushey Mead Academy, with 45 entries out of 322 pupils (14.0%). Both schools' entries are recorded under DfE's own 'Economics' subject heading with the qualification column reading 'GCSE', not an International GCSE. None of the other 20 state-funded secondaries this page checked shows an Economics row at all.
No. DfE's own subjects-entered data records the qualification only as 'GCSE' and names no exam board for either school, and neither school's own website named one in the course of this research. Nationally, only two boards publish a domestic GCSE in Economics at all: AQA, specification code 8136, and OCR, specification code J205 - both independently re-confirmed live on 16 September 2026. This page does not guess which of the two either Leicester school actually uses.
Usually, yes, and this page tested that reading against its own data rather than assuming it. Tudor Grange Samworth Academy's own GCSE Business Studies row - already published on this site's Leicester GCSE Business Studies page - reads a plain, unflagged single entry, not the Department for Education's own suppression marker. That shows the subjects-entered table records genuine entries down to one pupil rather than hiding them, so an absent Economics row across Leicester's other 20 state-funded secondaries is read on this page as a real recorded zero.
This page checked 6 of Leicester's 8 independent schools in the Department for Education's 2024/25 data. Five show a complete-looking subjects-entered list, including Mathematics and English, with no Economics row. The sixth, Leicester High School for Girls, has a visibly partial list - 13 subjects with no Mathematics row and no science row at all - so its absence of an Economics entry is reported here as unconfirmed, not a zero. The remaining 2 of Leicester's 8 independent schools were not checked for this page, and no claim is made about them either way. So the two state-funded schools above are not claimed to be the only Economics provision across every Leicester school.
Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, a large Leicester City sixth-form college, offers A-level Economics and states in its own published entry requirements that 'it is not necessary to have previously studied Economics', asking instead for grade 5 or above in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. Leicester College, the city's main further education college, was checked sitewide for this page and lists no Economics course of any kind - its own published sitemap of 854 course URLs contains none with 'economic' in the name, including within its nearest subject area, Business, Accounting and Law.
About 1.5%, or roughly 1 in 65. Summing City of Leicester College's 25 entries and Rushey Mead Academy's 45 gives 70 GCSE Economics entries across Leicester City's 2024/25 state-funded key-stage-4 population of 4,523 pupils - 4,523 divided by 70 is 64.6, giving both figures directly from the same two raw counts, not a DfE-published percentage. That figure is a floor rather than a ceiling: it excludes independent-school entries this page could not confirm and any pupil who reaches Economics later, at A-level, without ever sitting the GCSE.
Our GCSE Economics tutors start by confirming which specification a Leicester student is actually entered for - AQA 8136 or OCR J205 - since DfE's own data does not record it, rather than assuming from a citywide average. From there, our tutors build a one-to-one programme around a student's own topic-by-topic gaps, working through past-paper questions against the real mark scheme for their board. 91% of our students achieve their desired grades, and Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 58 reviews.
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Leading Tuition is rated 4.8/5 on Trustpilot from 58 reviews, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades. See also our overview of tutoring across Leicester and our Economics tutoring service.
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