Liverpool's own 2024/25 GCSE Chemistry results, and how they differ from Combined Science - the qualification most Liverpool pupils actually sit.
Book a Free ConsultationLiverpool is a local authority in North West England where 1,047 pupils were entered for separate GCSE Chemistry in 2024/25, achieving 85% at grade 4 or above and 74% at grade 5 or above - both qualification-specific figures, not the 3,935 entries and different results recorded separately for GCSE Combined Science, the double-award qualification most Liverpool pupils actually take.
Whether your child is on the separate-sciences pathway or taking Combined Science, the right support looks different for each. Our expert GCSE Chemistry tutors help students across Liverpool with both separate Chemistry and Combined Science, across AQA, Edexcel and OCR.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppSeparate GCSE Chemistry is one of three individual science GCSEs a pupil can sit - the others are Biology and Physics - each entered, examined and graded on its own 9-to-1 scale. A pupil who sits all three is on what schools and the Department for Education itself call the "triple science" or separate-sciences pathway. GCSE Combined Science is a different qualification entirely: a single double-award course that a pupil sits once, receiving two grades side by side - such as 6-5 or 4-4 - on a seventeen-point scale running from 9-9 down to 1-1, which the Department's own school-level results data confirms directly by listing exactly seventeen distinct grade-pair outcomes. A pupil who takes Combined Science has no separate GCSE Chemistry grade at all, and the Department for Education reports the two as entirely separate subject rows in its Key Stage 4 performance statistics - never combined into one "science" figure.
The two qualifications are not evenly split in Liverpool. Against the city's 1,047 separate-Chemistry entries in 2024/25, GCSE Combined Science drew 3,935 entries - roughly three and three-quarter pupils sitting Combined Science for every one sitting separate Chemistry. That tilt is steeper than on the city's separate-Biology page, where the ratio to Combined Science was closer to three and a half to one, because Chemistry's own entry count (1,047) sits below Biology's (1,111) even though both compete for the same shrinking pool of triple-science pupils.
On separate GCSE Chemistry, Liverpool's 2024/25 results sit behind England's state-funded average on both headline thresholds: 85% of Liverpool's entries reached grade 4 or above against 91% nationally, and 74% reached grade 5 or above against 81% nationally - gaps of 6 and 7 percentage points. On GCSE Combined Science, Liverpool's gap to England is wider in percentage-point terms on the lower threshold but similar on the higher one: 50% against 57% at grade 4 or above (a 7-point gap), and 30% against 36% at grade 5 or above (also a 6-point gap). Unlike on the sibling Biology page, where the England gap was clearly wider for the separate science than for Combined Science, Chemistry's gap to England is close to identical across both qualifications.
| Qualification / area, 2024/25 | Entries | Grade 4+ | Grade 5+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool - GCSE Chemistry | 1,047 | 85% | 74% |
| England (state-funded) - GCSE Chemistry | 147,193 | 91% | 81% |
| Liverpool - GCSE Combined Science | 3,935 | 50% | 30% |
| England (state-funded) - GCSE Combined Science | 446,554 | 57% | 36% |
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Liverpool's separate GCSE Chemistry entries rose from 996 in 2022/23 to 1,085 in 2023/24, then fell to 1,047 in 2024/25 - a 3.5% drop in the most recent year, after an 8.9% rise the year before. Grade 4+ achievement held flat at 90% across 2022/23 and 2023/24 before falling to 85% in 2024/25. Grade 5+ achievement fell in both of the last two years without a rise: 81% in 2022/23, down to 76% in 2023/24, then down again to 74% in 2024/25 - a slower, steadier decline than Biology's flat-then-fall pattern on the sibling page. England's own separate-Chemistry entries moved differently again: 156,653 in 2022/23, up to 157,346 in 2023/24, then down to 147,193 in 2024/25, a 6.4% national fall in the final year that outpaced Liverpool's 3.5%.
GCSE Combined Science tells a different story again. Liverpool's entries rose then fell - 3,873 in 2022/23, up to 4,082 in 2023/24, then down to 3,935 in 2024/25 - but its grade 4+ and grade 5+ rates rose in all three years without exception: 44% and 26%, then 46% and 27%, then 50% and 30%. Entries and results moved in the same direction for Chemistry in every one of the last two years, and in opposite directions for Combined Science. England's Combined Science entries, unlike Liverpool's, rose in every one of the three years - 423,350, then 442,331, then 446,554 - so Liverpool's 2024/25 dip in Combined Science entries runs against the national pattern, just as it did on the sibling Biology page.
| Liverpool, by year | Chemistry entries | Chemistry 4+/5+ | Comb. Sci. entries | Comb. Sci. 4+/5+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 996 | 90% / 81% | 3,873 | 44% / 26% |
| 2023/24 | 1,085 | 90% / 76% | 4,082 | 46% / 27% |
| 2024/25 | 1,047 | 85% / 74% | 3,935 | 50% / 30% |
The batch of research behind this page started from a claim worth testing rather than repeating: that Chemistry is usually the tightest of the three single sciences, so it sets the ceiling on how many pupils can complete the full triple-science pathway. Citywide, Liverpool does not fit that pattern. Its 2024/25 entries were 1,111 for Biology, 1,047 for Chemistry and 994 for Physics - so Physics, not Chemistry, is the smallest of the three. A pupil cannot be on the triple-science pathway without a Physics entry, so 994 is the highest that pathway could possibly reach citywide.
The Department for Education publishes the actual figure directly, rather than leaving it to be inferred from the three subject counts: 973 pupils entered for biology, chemistry and physics together in 2024/25, 18.1% of Liverpool's 5,366-pupil cohort. That is lower even than the 994 Physics entries alone, which means a small number of pupils sat Physics without completing Biology and Chemistry too. England's equivalent triple-science rate is 23.3%, a gap of just over 5 percentage points on a pathway Liverpool's own entry data shows is genuinely constrained by Physics, not by Chemistry.
That citywide pattern is not fixed, though - it is worth checking per school rather than assumed. At two of the three named Liverpool schools further down this page, Chemistry rather than Physics turns out to be the tighter subject; at the third, it is Physics again, by a much wider margin. A short call is the quickest way to find out which pattern your own child's school follows - book a free consultation.
Not the same 39-school split as for Biology. Liverpool had 39 state-funded secondary schools with a Key Stage 4 cohort in 2024/25, the same population already established and GIAS-checked on the sibling Biology page. Querying the Department's subject-entry data fresh for Chemistry - rather than reusing the Biology-framed count - returns 25 Liverpool schools with at least one Chemistry entry and 36 with at least one Combined Science entry before any exclusions. Two of those 25 (Auckland College and Christian Fellowship School) and a further two of the 36 (NexGen Academy and Liverpool Progressive School) are independent schools confirmed on Get Information about Schools, not part of the state-funded 39, and are excluded.
That leaves 23 state-funded schools entering separate Chemistry and 33 entering Combined Science - the same 33 already published on the sibling Biology page, since which schools offer Combined Science does not depend on which single science the page is framed around. Of those, 22 schools offer both Chemistry and Combined Science, and 1 - The Blue Coat School - offers separate Chemistry with no Combined Science entries at all, running an all-triple-science model. The remaining 16 schools split into 11 offering Combined Science only, and 5 with no recorded Chemistry or Combined Science entries: the same four small community special schools already identified on the Biology page (Woolton High School, Palmerston School, Redbridge High School and Sandfield Park School), plus one further school, Abbot's Lea School, which the Biology page recorded entering 3 pupils for separate Biology but which carries no Chemistry or Combined Science entries in this dataset. Between them, the four groups - 22 with both, 1 Chemistry-only, 11 Combined-Science-only, and 5 with neither - account for all 39.
The Blue Coat School, already named above as Liverpool's only Chemistry-only school, entered 175 of its 176-pupil cohort for separate Chemistry in 2024/25, achieving 99.4% at grade 4 or above and 97.1% at grade 5 or above. Its Chemistry entry count, 175, is one below both its Biology entries (176) and its Physics entries (176), and its own published triple-science total is also 175 - so Chemistry, not Physics, is this specific school's binding constraint, the opposite of the citywide pattern above, even though the gap here is a single pupil.
Dixons Broadgreen Academy, a 167-pupil-cohort open Liverpool academy, shows the opposite extreme. It entered just 1 pupil for separate Chemistry in 2024/25, 8 for separate Biology and 2 for separate Physics - against 157 pupils sitting Combined Science instead. Its own published triple-science total is 1 pupil, 0.6% of the cohort, and its Attainment 8 score was 34.4. Where Blue Coat's triple-science pathway is near-universal, Dixons Broadgreen's is close to non-existent, and Chemistry - at a single entry - is by far its tightest of the three single sciences.
Notre Dame Catholic Academy, a 177-pupil-cohort school, sits between the two. It entered 103 pupils for separate Biology and 101 for separate Chemistry in 2024/25 - but only 30 for separate Physics. Its own published triple-science total is also 30, confirming Physics, not Chemistry, as this school's binding constraint, by a wide margin rather than Blue Coat's single-pupil gap. Its Attainment 8 score was 31 and its triple-science entry rate was 16.9% of the cohort.
| School, 2024/25 | Biology entries | Chemistry entries | Physics entries | Triple-science total | Constraint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Blue Coat School | 176 | 175 | 176 | 175 | Chemistry (by 1 pupil) |
| Dixons Broadgreen Academy | 8 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Chemistry (by 1 pupil, of only 8) |
| Notre Dame Catholic Academy | 103 | 101 | 30 | 30 | Physics (by 71 pupils) |
Three named, open Liverpool schools, three entirely different Chemistry pictures - a near-universal triple-science model, a near-total switch to Combined Science, and a school where Biology and Chemistry run in step but Physics falls sharply behind. A citywide average cannot substitute for checking which of these patterns your own child's school actually follows - book a free consultation and we'll work from your child's actual specification.
No, and this holds for Chemistry exactly as it does for Biology or Physics. Attainment 8 is built from four buckets, filling eight GCSE-equivalent slots between them: English counts twice (double-weighted), maths counts twice (double-weighted), then three slots go to a pupil's best results from a shared "EBacc" group of subjects, and a final three slots go to any other qualifications, the "open" group. Science does not have a dedicated double-weighted element the way English and maths do - it sits inside the three-slot EBacc bucket, competing for those same three slots alongside languages, history, geography and computer science.
Liverpool's average score across that shared EBacc bucket was 12 in 2024/25, against 13.5 for England - a 1.5-point gap on a bucket that Chemistry results feed into alongside every pupil's language, humanity and computer science results, and a smaller comparison than the 42.1-versus-46 gap on Attainment 8 as a whole. Separately, the EBacc qualification itself sets its own science requirement - two science GCSEs, met either through Combined Science, which supplies both in a single double award, or through two of the three separate sciences, Chemistry being one of them. In Liverpool, 90.4% of the 2024/25 cohort met that requirement: 72.3 percentage points through Combined Science and 18.1 through the separate-sciences route, against an England figure of 94.1%, split 70.8 and 23.3 the same way. Within that requirement, Liverpool's cohort achieved grade 4 or above in both required science GCSEs 58.8% of the time and grade 5 or above 40.7% of the time, against England's 65.8% and 47.9%.
Leading Tuition's GCSE Chemistry tutors work from a student's own school and exam board - AQA, Edexcel, OCR or WJEC/Eduqas - and from whichever science pathway that school has actually entered the student for, separate Chemistry or Combined Science, rather than a generic scheme of work built for neither. Sessions run one-to-one online with a shared whiteboard, so a tutor can work through past-paper questions on the correct specification, mark them against the real mark scheme, and share annotated resources with a student in real time. Our wider GCSE tuition service covers every subject alongside Chemistry for families who need more than one, our GCSE Chemistry guide covers topic-by-topic revision for both qualifications, and families thinking ahead to Sixth Form can see our A-level Chemistry page. Families in Liverpool wanting a different GCSE subject can also see our GCSE Biology tutors in Liverpool and GCSE Maths tutors in Liverpool pages, and families researching tutoring in other cities can browse every location we cover.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe Liverpool and England figures above are drawn from the Department for Education's Key Stage 4 performance, 2024/25 release and its open subject-entry and school-level datasets, queried directly on 1 September 2026; The Blue Coat School, Dixons Broadgreen Academy and Notre Dame Catholic Academy's figures come from the same school-level dataset, cross-checked against all three schools' Get Information about Schools records to confirm they remain open, and the same source confirmed Auckland College, Christian Fellowship School, NexGen Academy and Liverpool Progressive School are independent rather than state-funded. For topic-by-topic revision guidance across both qualifications, see our GCSE Chemistry guide; parents wanting wider GCSE support across every subject can see our GCSE resources for parents guide.
85% of the 1,047 pupils entered for separate GCSE Chemistry in Liverpool achieved grade 4 or above in 2024/25, and 74% achieved grade 5 or above, according to the Department for Education's Key Stage 4 performance data. Both figures describe the separate Chemistry GCSE only. Most Liverpool pupils sit GCSE Combined Science instead, a different qualification with its own results: 50% at grade 4 or above and 30% at grade 5 or above, from 3,935 entries in the same year.
Separate GCSE Chemistry is one of three individual science GCSEs - alongside Biology and Physics - each graded on its own 9-to-1 scale; a pupil who sits all three is on what schools call the triple, or separate sciences, pathway. GCSE Combined Science is a single double-award qualification: a pupil sits it once and receives two grades side by side, such as 6-5 or 4-4, on a seventeen-point scale running from 9-9 down to 1-1. The Department for Education reports the two as separate subject rows, and a pupil taking Combined Science has no separate GCSE Chemistry grade at all.
Neither, in a straight line. Liverpool's separate GCSE Chemistry entries rose from 996 in 2022/23 to 1,085 in 2023/24, then fell to 1,047 in 2024/25 - a 3.5% drop in the most recent year, after an 8.9% rise the year before. Grade 4+ achievement held flat at 90% across the first two years before falling to 85% in 2024/25; grade 5+ achievement fell in both years, from 81% to 76% to 74%. GCSE Combined Science moved differently: entries rose in all three years (3,873 to 4,082 to 3,935 is the exception, dipping in the final year) while grade 4+ and grade 5+ rates rose every year (44%/26%, then 46%/27%, then 50%/30%).
Citywide, it is Physics, not Chemistry. Liverpool's 2024/25 entries were 1,111 for Biology, 1,047 for Chemistry and 994 for Physics - so Physics is the smallest of the three, meaning it sets the ceiling on how many pupils can possibly be on the full triple-science pathway. The Department for Education's own published triple-science measure (pupils entered for biology, chemistry and physics together) confirms this: 973 pupils, 18.1% of the cohort - even lower than the 994 Physics entries alone, since a small number of pupils took Physics without also completing the other two. England's equivalent figure is 23.3%. The pattern is not fixed by subject: at one named Liverpool school below, Chemistry rather than Physics is the constraint.
23 of them. Cross-checking Liverpool's 39 state-funded secondary schools against the Department for Education's subject-entry data shows 23 entered at least one pupil for separate GCSE Chemistry and 33 entered at least one pupil for GCSE Combined Science; 22 schools offered both, and 1 - The Blue Coat School - offered separate Chemistry with no Combined Science entries at all. The remaining 16 schools split into 11 offering Combined Science only and 5 with no recorded Chemistry or Combined Science entries: four small community special schools plus one further school that enters separate Biology but not Chemistry.
It varies sharply. The Blue Coat School entered 175 of its 176-pupil cohort for separate Chemistry in 2024/25, a near-universal triple-science model achieving 99.4% at grade 4 or above. Dixons Broadgreen Academy, a 167-pupil-cohort school, entered just 1 pupil for separate Chemistry, with 157 pupils sitting Combined Science instead - its own published triple-science total is 1 pupil, 0.6% of the cohort. Notre Dame Catholic Academy sits between the two: 101 separate-Chemistry entries and 103 separate-Biology entries from a 177-pupil cohort, but only 30 for Physics, making Physics rather than Chemistry its own binding constraint. Three named, open Liverpool schools, three different patterns.
No. Attainment 8 is built from four buckets: English and maths, each double-weighted, plus three "EBacc" slots and three "open" slots. Science does not get its own slot - it competes for the three EBacc slots alongside languages, history, geography and computer science. Liverpool's average score across that shared EBacc bucket was 12 in 2024/25, against 13.5 for England, a gap distinct from the wider 42.1-versus-46 gap on Attainment 8 as a whole.
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