Liverpool's own 2024/25 GCSE Physics 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 994 pupils were entered for separate GCSE Physics in 2024/25, achieving 88% at grade 4 or above and 78% 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 Physics tutors help students across Liverpool with both separate Physics and Combined Science, across AQA, Edexcel and OCR.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppSeparate GCSE Physics is one of three individual science GCSEs a pupil can sit - the others are Biology and Chemistry - 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 Physics 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. Physics also carries assessment weight the other two do not: a minimum of 30% of GCSE Physics marks must test mathematical skills, against a minimum of 20% for Chemistry and 10% for Biology - a requirement set by the Department for Education and Ofqual, not an AQA-specific choice, with the two combined-science awards splitting their own questions in the same 1:2:3 ratio. Physics also carries its own dedicated appendix of required equations in AQA's GCSE Physics specification (8463): one list students must recall and apply unaided, and a second given on an insert sheet they must still select and apply correctly - a two-tier structure Combined Science folds into a shorter, shared list instead.
The two qualifications are not evenly split in Liverpool, and Physics leans furthest toward Combined Science of any of the three single sciences. Against the city's 994 separate-Physics entries in 2024/25, GCSE Combined Science drew 3,935 entries - very nearly four pupils sitting Combined Science for every one sitting separate Physics (a ratio of 3.96 to 1). That is steeper than the ratio already published on the sibling Chemistry page (3.76 to 1) and steeper again than Biology's (roughly 3.54 to 1) - of the three single sciences, Physics is proportionally the one Liverpool schools choose least often as a separate GCSE.
On separate GCSE Physics, Liverpool's 2024/25 results sit behind England's state-funded average on both headline thresholds, but by less than on the sibling Chemistry or Biology pages: 88% of Liverpool's entries reached grade 4 or above against 90% nationally, and 78% reached grade 5 or above against 82% nationally - gaps of just 2 and 4 percentage points. Chemistry's equivalent gaps were 6 and 7 points; Biology's were 9 and 11. Physics is Liverpool's most constrained single science by entry numbers and its closest to the England benchmark by results - the pupils who do take it perform nearest to the national standard of any of the three sciences. On GCSE Combined Science, Liverpool's gap to England is wider than Physics's own gap on both measures: 50% against 57% at grade 4 or above (a 7-point gap), and 30% against 36% at grade 5 or above (a 6-point gap).
| Qualification / area, 2024/25 | Entries | Grade 4+ | Grade 5+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool - GCSE Physics | 994 | 88% | 78% |
| England (state-funded) - GCSE Physics | 147,757 | 90% | 82% |
| 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 Physics entries rose from 995 in 2022/23 to 1,077 in 2023/24, then fell to 994 in 2024/25 - a 7.7% drop in the most recent year, after an 8.2% rise the year before. That final-year fall is roughly double the size of the falls already published on the sibling pages: Chemistry dropped 3.5% over the same two years and Biology 3.7%. Grade 4+ achievement slipped gradually across all three years, from 90% to 89% to 88%; grade 5+ achievement fell from 81% to 78% between the first two years, then held flat at 78% into 2024/25 rather than falling further. England's own separate-Physics entries moved from 156,729 in 2022/23, up slightly to 157,855 in 2023/24, then down to 147,757 in 2024/25 - a 6.4% national fall. That is smaller than Liverpool's 7.7% fall, which is the opposite of the pattern on the sibling pages: Liverpool's Chemistry fall (3.5%) and Biology fall (3.7%) were both well below England's own falls (6.4% and 6.4% respectively) in the same year. On Physics specifically, Liverpool's own decline slightly outpaced the national one.
| Liverpool, by year | Physics entries | Physics 4+/5+ | Comb. Sci. entries | Comb. Sci. 4+/5+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 995 | 90% / 81% | 3,873 | 44% / 26% |
| 2023/24 | 1,077 | 89% / 78% | 4,082 | 46% / 27% |
| 2024/25 | 994 | 88% / 78% | 3,935 | 50% / 30% |
Physics does, and this page's own re-query of the Department's 2024/25 data confirms it. Liverpool's 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 publishes the actual triple-science 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 - lower even than the 994 Physics entries alone, which means a small number of pupils sat Physics without also completing Biology and Chemistry. England's equivalent triple-science rate is 23.3% (145,726 pupils of a 625,648-pupil cohort).
Because entering Physics is a precondition for triple science, Physics's own share of the cohort can never sit below the triple-science share - it is a floor, not a ceiling. Liverpool's own numbers hold that direction correctly: Physics's 994 entries are 18.5% of the 5,366-pupil cohort, a touch above the 18.1% triple-science share, exactly as the logic requires. England's figures do the same (Physics 23.6% of the cohort against a 23.3% triple-science share). One of the three named schools further down this page - King David High School - shows the same relationship at school level, where the gap between a subject's own share and its triple-science share can be even narrower.
A different 39-school split again, not the same as either sibling page. 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 Chemistry and Biology pages. Querying the Department's subject-entry data fresh for Physics - rather than reusing the Chemistry- or Biology-framed counts - returns 27 Liverpool schools with at least one Physics entry and 36 with at least one Combined Science entry before any exclusions. Two of the 27 (Auckland College and Christian Fellowship School) are independent schools confirmed on Get Information about Schools, not part of the state-funded 39, and are excluded; three of the 36 Combined Science schools (Christian Fellowship School, NexGen Academy and Liverpool Progressive School) are excluded for the same reason.
That leaves 25 state-funded schools entering separate Physics and 33 entering Combined Science - the same 33 already published on both sibling pages, since which schools offer Combined Science does not depend on which single science the page is framed around. Of those, 24 schools offer both Physics and Combined Science, and 1 - The Blue Coat School, already named on both sibling pages as Liverpool's only all-triple-science school - offers separate Physics with no Combined Science entries at all. The remaining 14 schools split into 9 offering Combined Science only (Gateacre School, Alsop High School, The Academy of St Nicholas, Archbishop Beck Catholic College, Dixons Croxteth Academy, St John Bosco Arts College, Bank View High School, Childwall Abbey School and Clifford Holroyde Specialist SEN College) and 5 with no recorded Physics or Combined Science entries: the same four small community special schools already identified on the sibling pages (Woolton High School, Palmerston School, Redbridge High School and Sandfield Park School), plus Abbot's Lea School, which enters a small number of pupils for separate Biology but carries no Physics, Chemistry or Combined Science entries in this dataset. Between them, the four groups - 24 with both, 1 Physics-only, 9 Combined-Science-only, and 5 with neither - account for all 39.
Twenty-five is different from both sibling counts - 23 schools enter separate Chemistry and 30 enter separate Biology - because a school's decision to run Physics, Chemistry or Biology separately does not move in lockstep. A short call is the quickest way to find out which pattern your own child's school follows - book a free consultation.
King's Leadership Academy, Liverpool, a 125-pupil-cohort open academy, entered exactly 42 pupils each for separate Biology, Chemistry and Physics in 2024/25 - the same number for all three subjects. Its own published triple-science total is also 42, and its triple-science entry rate is 33.6% of the cohort - confirming that all 42 pupils entered for each subject really are the same 42 pupils, with no hidden gap between the tied subject counts and the true overlap. In Physics itself, the school achieved 73.8% at grade 4 or above (31 of 42) and 52.4% at grade 5 or above (22 of 42), against an Attainment 8 average of 34.5, below Liverpool's own 42.1 average.
King David High School shows why that confirmation matters rather than being assumed. This 114-pupil-cohort open school entered 31 pupils for separate Biology and 29 each for separate Chemistry and Physics in 2024/25 - Chemistry and Physics tied exactly. But its own published triple-science total is 28, one pupil fewer than the tied count of 29, proving that the 29 Chemistry entrants and the 29 Physics entrants were not quite the same 29 pupils. Physics's own share of the cohort (25.4%) still sits fractionally above the school's triple-science share (24.6%), the same floor-not-ceiling relationship holding true at school level as it does citywide. Physics results here were strong regardless of the pathway question: every one of the 29 Physics entries reached at least grade 5, and 22 of the 29 (75.9%) reached grade 7 or above, against an Attainment 8 average of 54.3 - above both Liverpool's 42.1 and England's 46.
Liverpool Life Sciences UTC, a 136-pupil-cohort university technical college specialising in science, sits between the two. It entered 45 pupils for separate Biology and 44 each for separate Chemistry and Physics - a one-pupil gap rather than an exact tie - and its own published triple-science total is 44, matching the Chemistry/Physics figure rather than being pulled down further. Its Attainment 8 average, 46.3, beats both Liverpool's 42.1 and England's own 46 - a genuine standout despite its subject specialism. Yet only 44 of its 136 pupils, a 32.4% triple-science rate, actually took the separate-sciences route: the remaining 91 sat Combined Science instead, achieving 88.6% at grade 4 or above and 68.2% at grade 5 or above in Physics among those who did take it separately.
| School, 2024/25 | Biology | Chemistry | Physics | Comb. Sci. | Triple-science total | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| King's Leadership Academy, Liverpool | 42 | 42 | 42 | 81 | 42 (matches exactly) | 34.5 |
| King David High School | 31 | 29 | 29 | 79 | 28 (1 short of the tie) | 54.3 |
| Liverpool Life Sciences UTC | 45 | 44 | 44 | 91 | 44 (matches the min) | 46.3 |
Three named, open Liverpool schools, three different lessons: one where equal subject counts really do mean equal pupils, one where they don't by a single pupil, and one where a science specialism lifts Attainment 8 without lifting the triple-science rate. 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 Physics exactly as it does for Biology or Chemistry. 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 Physics 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, Physics 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. (A closely related Department measure - pupils entering any three of four recognised sciences, which allows computer science in place of one separate science - puts Liverpool's separate-sciences figure fractionally higher, at 18.2%, on 975 pupils rather than 973; the two measures are not identical, and this page uses the exact biology-chemistry-physics triple throughout.) Within the EBacc science 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 Physics 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 Physics 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 and required-equation practice 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 Physics for families who need more than one, our GCSE Physics guide covers topic-by-topic revision for both qualifications, and families thinking ahead to Sixth Form can see our A-level Physics page. Families in Liverpool wanting a different GCSE subject can also see our GCSE Chemistry tutors in Liverpool, 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 2 September 2026; King's Leadership Academy, King David High School and Liverpool Life Sciences UTC's figures come from the same school-level datasets, 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. The mathematical-skills and equations detail above is drawn from AQA's GCSE science exams explained guidance, which marks the mark-weighting requirement as set by the Department for Education and Ofqual rather than by AQA itself. For topic-by-topic revision guidance across both qualifications, see our GCSE Physics guide; parents wanting wider GCSE support across every subject can see our GCSE resources for parents guide.
88% of the 994 pupils entered for separate GCSE Physics in Liverpool achieved grade 4 or above in 2024/25, and 78% achieved grade 5 or above, according to the Department for Education's Key Stage 4 performance data. Both figures describe the separate Physics 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 Physics is one of three individual science GCSEs - alongside Biology and Chemistry - 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 Physics grade at all.
Neither, in a straight line, but its most recent fall is sharper than its sibling sciences. Liverpool's separate GCSE Physics entries rose from 995 in 2022/23 to 1,077 in 2023/24, then fell to 994 in 2024/25 - a 7.7% drop in the most recent year, roughly double the 3.5% fall recorded for Chemistry and the 3.7% fall for Biology over the same two years. Grade 4+ achievement slipped from 90% to 89% to 88%; grade 5+ achievement fell from 81% to 78%, then held flat. England's own separate-Physics entries fell 6.4% in 2024/25 (157,855 to 147,757) - smaller than Liverpool's 7.7% fall, unlike Chemistry and Biology, whose local falls were both smaller than England's.
Physics. 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 and sets the ceiling on how many pupils can possibly complete 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 at 973 pupils, 18.1% of Liverpool's 5,366-pupil cohort, lower even than the 994 Physics entries alone. England's equivalent rate is 23.3%. Physics's own share of the cohort (18.5%) is still slightly higher than the triple-science share (18.1%), which is the correct direction: entering Physics is required for triple science, so Physics's share can never sit below it.
25 of them - a different split from the sibling Chemistry (23) and Biology (30) pages, because which single science a school chooses to run varies. Cross-checking Liverpool's 39 state-funded secondaries against the Department's subject-entry data shows 25 entered separate GCSE Physics and 33 entered GCSE Combined Science; 24 offered both, and 1 - The Blue Coat School - offered separate Physics with no Combined Science entries at all. The remaining 14 split into 9 Combined-Science-only and 5 with neither: the same four small community special schools identified on the sibling pages, plus one further school entering separate Biology but neither Physics nor Chemistry.
It varies, and equal entry counts do not always mean equal outcomes. King's Leadership Academy, Liverpool entered exactly 42 pupils each for separate Biology, Chemistry and Physics in 2024/25, and its own published triple-science total is also 42 - the three subjects share the same pupils exactly. King David High School entered 29 pupils each for Chemistry and Physics, but its published triple-science total is 28, one fewer than the tied count - proof that matching subject entries do not guarantee the same pupils sat all three. Liverpool Life Sciences UTC, a science-specialist school, entered 44 pupils for both Chemistry and Physics against 45 for Biology, achieved an Attainment 8 average of 46.3 - above both Liverpool's 42.1 and England's 46 - yet still sent the majority of its cohort, 91 of 136 pupils, through Combined Science rather than the triple-science route.
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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