Kingston upon Thames and Sutton lead all 32 London boroughs on GCSE maths grades; Croydon and Lambeth trail by up to 28 points — see where your borough sits.
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Kingston upon Thames and Sutton recorded London's strongest GCSE maths results in 2025, with 76% and 75% of pupils achieving grade 5 or above, DfE's 2024/25 data shows. Croydon and Lambeth recorded the weakest, both at 48% — a 28-point gap inside one city and one exam year. This page sets out that gap borough by borough, names two schools either side of it, and explains what a grade 4, 5 or 6 in GCSE maths actually gates locally.
No. The Department for Education does not publish a "London" local authority row, because London is not a local authority. It is 32 separate boroughs — plus the City of London, which has no state secondary school and is excluded from Key Stage 4 tables — each reporting its own GCSE results independently. DfE groups those 32 boroughs into two sub-regions for its own regional summaries: 13 Inner London boroughs (Camden, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Westminster) and 19 Outer London boroughs (Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Sutton, Waltham Forest and Hounslow), which in turn roll up into one "London" government region.
Those four levels — named borough, Inner or Outer London, the London region, and England — are not interchangeable, and a figure quoted at the wrong level misleads. Outer London's regional average for pupils achieving grade 5 or above in English and maths combined was 53.8% in 2024/25, the highest of England's nine regions; that regional figure sits between Kingston upon Thames's borough figure of 69.3% on the same combined measure — itself the single highest local authority result recorded anywhere in England that year, ahead of Knowsley's 24.7% at the other end of the national range — and Croydon's borough figure, which at 42.4% sits below the England state-funded average of 45.4%. Every figure on this page states explicitly which of those four levels it describes.
A family comparing GCSE maths results for two children in different London boroughs, or weighing a house move between boroughs, is never comparing like with like unless they check which of these four levels a figure describes. A school's own results sit inside its borough's results, which sit inside its Inner or Outer London classification, which sits inside the England figure — and each layer can tell a different story, as the borough table below shows.
The table below sets out every London borough's 2024/25 GCSE Mathematics results at both headline grade thresholds: grade 5 or above (a "strong pass," and the threshold most sixth forms and employers reference) and grade 4 or above (a "standard pass," the minimum most colleges require). Figures are for state-funded schools, sourced from DfE's Key Stage 4 performance release, and ordered by grade 5+ result.
| London Borough | Region | Grade 5+ (2024/25) | Grade 4+ (2024/25) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kingston upon Thames | Outer London | 76% | 88% |
| Sutton | Outer London | 75% | 87% |
| Richmond upon Thames | Outer London | 70% | 86% |
| Barnet | Outer London | 69% | 83% |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | Inner London | 67% | 84% |
| Kensington and Chelsea | Inner London | 67% | 83% |
| Redbridge | Outer London | 67% | 82% |
| Wandsworth | Inner London | 64% | 80% |
| Ealing | Outer London | 63% | 79% |
| Merton | Outer London | 63% | 80% |
| Westminster | Inner London | 63% | 79% |
| Hounslow | Outer London | 61% | 77% |
| Bexley | Outer London | 60% | 76% |
| Bromley | Outer London | 60% | 78% |
| Southwark | Inner London | 60% | 78% |
| Brent | Outer London | 59% | 75% |
| Harrow | Outer London | 59% | 75% |
| Newham | Inner London | 59% | 76% |
| Hillingdon | Outer London | 57% | 75% |
| Islington | Inner London | 55% | 71% |
| Camden | Inner London | 54% | 72% |
| Hackney | Inner London | 54% | 75% |
| Haringey | Inner London | 54% | 72% |
| Havering | Outer London | 54% | 74% |
| Tower Hamlets | Inner London | 54% | 74% |
| Barking and Dagenham | Outer London | 53% | 74% |
| Waltham Forest | Outer London | 52% | 70% |
| Enfield | Outer London | 51% | 71% |
| Greenwich | Outer London | 51% | 70% |
| Lewisham | Inner London | 51% | 69% |
| Croydon | Outer London | 48% | 68% |
| Lambeth | Inner London | 48% | 68% |
Kingston upon Thames and Sutton, both Outer London boroughs, lead every other London borough on both measures. Richmond upon Thames and Barnet follow, each still well clear of the Inner London average. Croydon and Lambeth sit jointly lowest on grade 5+, at 48%, with a 20-point gap to Kingston upon Thames persisting even on the more forgiving grade 4+ threshold (68% against 88%). Neither the Inner/Outer London split nor a borough's overall reputation predicts this pattern cleanly: Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham, both Inner London, outscore all but four Outer London boroughs, while Enfield and Greenwich, both Outer London, sit in the bottom third alongside several Inner London boroughs.
For context, the gap between England's highest- and lowest-scoring local authority on the combined English-and-maths measure was 44.6 percentage points nationally in 2024/25 — Kingston upon Thames's 69.3% against Knowsley's 24.7%. London's own boroughs, on the maths-only measure above, span more than half of that entire national range within a single city.
| Measure (2024/25) | Coombe Boys' School (Kingston) | Harris Invictus Academy Croydon | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attainment 8 maths element (out of 18) | 12.0 | 9.1 | 9.1 |
| Attainment 8 overall score | 54.8 | 45.0 | 46.1 |
| Grade 5+ English & maths (combined) | 67.4% | 46.5% | 45.4% |
| Local authority average, Attainment 8 maths element | 11.9 (Kingston upon Thames) | 8.7 (Croydon) | 9.1 |
Borough averages describe 2,014 pupils in Kingston upon Thames and 3,920 in Croydon; a family is usually weighing one specific school. At Coombe Boys' School in Kingston upon Thames, the 2024/25 Attainment 8 maths element — GCSE Maths scored out of 18 points, since maths counts double within the wider Attainment 8 measure — stood at 12.0 for the school itself and 11.9 as the Kingston upon Thames local authority average, both comfortably above the England average of 9.1. At Harris Invictus Academy Croydon, the same measure stood at 9.1 for the school and 8.7 as the Croydon local authority average, below the England figure. The gap between the two boroughs' local authority averages on this measure, 11.9 against 8.7, is 3.2 points on an 18-point scale — and because each whole GCSE grade contributes roughly two points to a double-weighted subject, that gap describes close to a full grade's difference in the average maths outcome between the two boroughs, not a rounding difference.
The same two schools illustrate why one widely used measure cannot describe this year's results at all. Progress 8, which tracks how far pupils progress between key stage 2 and their GCSEs, cannot be calculated for 2024/25 or 2025/26: the Department for Education states plainly that pupils in these cohorts sat no key stage 2 assessments, because those tests were cancelled in 2019/20 and 2020/21 during the pandemic, and there is no announced replacement. Both Coombe Boys' School's and Harris Invictus Academy Croydon's own results pages confirm this in identical terms. Attainment 8's maths element, which needs no such baseline, is the closest published like-for-like alternative for this cohort — which is why it appears above rather than a Progress 8 score neither school can currently report.
Grade 5+ in English and maths combined tells a related but distinct story for the same two schools: 67.4% of Coombe Boys' pupils reached it, against a Kingston upon Thames local authority average of 69.3% and an England figure of 45.4%; at Harris Invictus Academy Croydon, 46.5% of pupils reached it, against a Croydon average of 42.4%, itself below the England figure. A school can sit above its own borough's average, as Coombe Boys' does modestly, or above the national average while its borough average sits below it, as Harris Invictus Academy Croydon does — which is why a borough figure and a named school's own figure are both worth checking rather than either alone.
The grade thresholds behind every figure above have direct, concrete consequences once results day arrives, and London sixth forms set them out precisely. Esher Sixth Form College, which serves families across Kingston upon Thames, Elmbridge and south-west London, requires a minimum of five GCSEs at grade 4 or above simply to start a Level 3 study programme — the "standard pass" threshold this page has used throughout. For A Level Mathematics specifically, the same college requires a minimum of grade 6 in GCSE Maths, alongside a grade 6 average across a student's other GCSEs. A grade 4 opens the door to sixth form in general; a grade 6 is what a maths-heavy course beyond it can specifically demand, and the gap between those two thresholds is exactly the range this page's borough figures span.
That range is where targeted GCSE maths tuition in London makes the most difference: closing the distance between a grade a student is currently tracking toward and the grade a specific sixth form course requires, on that student's own exam board and specification. Leading Tuition's GCSE maths tutors work from a diagnostic assessment against a student's actual school and exam board — AQA, Edexcel, OCR or WJEC/Eduqas — rather than a generic scheme of work, whether that student attends a school in a borough scoring above the England average or one still building toward it. Sessions run one-to-one online with a shared whiteboard for working through past-paper questions under the real mark scheme, and progress is reviewed against the student's own target grade at agreed intervals.
Not sure where your child's borough or school sits? A short call is enough for us to map their target grade against their actual school, exam board and borough context, and recommend a plan. Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 58 reviews, read on 22 August 2026.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppBorough figures above are drawn from the Department for Education's Key Stage 4 performance, 2024/25 release (published 23 April 2026, last updated 4 August 2026) and its underlying subject-level local authority data table; school-level figures are drawn from the Department's Compare School and College Performance service, checked on 25 August 2026. Families researching Leading Tuition's wider GCSE Maths tuition service, our tutoring across London generally, or preparation for 11+ entry in London ahead of secondary school, can find each covered in full on its own page.
Kingston upon Thames had the best GCSE maths results of any London borough in the 2024/25 results published by the Department for Education: 76% of its pupils achieved grade 5 or above and 88% achieved grade 4 or above, both the highest figures among all 32 London boroughs. Sutton followed closely, at 75% and 87%. Kingston upon Thames's 69.3% combined English-and-maths grade 5+ rate was also the single highest local authority figure recorded anywhere in England that year, ahead of every other English local authority, including Knowsley's 24.7% at the opposite end of the national range.
Croydon and Lambeth were jointly the weakest-performing London boroughs for GCSE maths in the 2024/25 results, both at 48% of pupils achieving grade 5 or above and 68% achieving grade 4 or above. That is a 28-percentage-point gap to Kingston upon Thames's 76% on the grade 5+ measure, and a 20-point gap on grade 4+, entirely within one city and one exam year.
London has no single GCSE maths result. The Department for Education publishes 32 separate borough figures — plus the City of London, which has no state secondary school — grouped into 13 Inner London and 19 Outer London boroughs that roll up into one London region figure. A named borough's figure, an Inner or Outer London regional figure, and the England figure are three different things, and this page states which one every number describes.
The Department for Education states that it is not possible to calculate Progress 8 for the 2024/25 or 2025/26 academic years, because those pupils sat no key stage 2 assessments — those tests were cancelled in 2019/20 and 2020/21 during the pandemic, removing the baseline Progress 8 needs. This applies to every school in England, not only London ones, and no replacement measure has been announced for either year.
Attainment 8's maths element scores a pupil's GCSE Maths result out of 18 points, since maths is double-weighted within the wider Attainment 8 measure. At Coombe Boys' School, the Kingston upon Thames local authority average was 11.9 in 2024/25; at Harris Invictus Academy Croydon, the Croydon local authority average was 8.7. Both are measured against an England average of 9.1, so Kingston's average sits above the national figure and Croydon's sits below it.
Requirements vary by course and college. Esher Sixth Form College, which serves families across Kingston upon Thames and south-west London, sets a minimum of five GCSEs at grade 4 or above for its general Level 3 study programme, and specifically requires a minimum of grade 6 in GCSE Maths, with a grade 6 average across a student's GCSEs, to take A Level Mathematics itself. A grade 4 opens the door to sixth form generally; a grade 6 is what a specific maths-heavy course can require.
Third-party tutoring marketplaces list London GCSE maths tutors at rates from roughly £15 an hour up to £125 an hour or more, according to figures published on Tutor Hunt in August 2026, with cost varying by tutor experience, subject and whether sessions run online or in person. Beyond hourly rate, a tutor matched to a student's specific school and exam board matters more for results than rate alone — Leading Tuition builds every GCSE maths programme around a diagnostic assessment against the student's own syllabus rather than a generic course.
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