Sunderland student who moved from Nigeria passes all GCSEs as North East sees increase in top grades

A schoolgirl from Nigeria who navigated moving to a new country and the tail end of a global pandemic is celebrating after passing her GCSEs.

Niniola Olaonyie moved from Nigeria to the North East and began attending Washington Academy in Year 9.

Two years later, her GCSE results have given her the ticket studying sciences in the school's sixth form from September.

Niniola told ITV Tyne Tees on Thursday (22 August): "I passed everything! I am really happy, I’ve been so nervous.

"I am going to sixth form and I don’t have to worry about my results anymore."

It comes as the region experienced a higher number of top grades than last year.

Nationally the number of pupils who received the highest grades in their GCSE results remained above pre-pandemic levels, despite falling slightly compared with 2023.

Headteacher of Washington Academy, Victoria Carter, said she was very pleased with her students' results.

Ms Carter said this year's cohort of GCSE pupils had overcome going into the national lockdown six months into starting secondary school.

She added: "When you start secondary you’ve got enough pressures and everything's brand new and it’s very different to primary in terms of moving around schools.

“Those foundation years of acquiring all that foundation knowledge and skills that spring boards you into GCSE, they had two years of disruption for that.

"So starting in secondary school and then going into the unknown that no one could have ever predicted, is remarkable that our student shave done so well today."

The map shows the regions with the highest number of top grades. Areas with more top grades are represented with a darker colour.

It has been suggested GCSE results show that the Covid-19 pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis are still having a “disproportionate impact” on some English regions such as the North East.

“Stubborn” disparities remain between different parts of the country, according to education leaders, and action is needed to tackle these inequalities.

The latest figures show London and North East England continue to have the highest and lowest proportion of GCSE entries awarded grade 7/A or above in England.

But the gap between the regions has narrowed for the first time in nearly a decade.

In London, 28.5% of entries were awarded 7/A or higher this year, up slightly from 28.4% in 2023, while for North East the figure was 17.8%, up from 17.6%.

The gap between these two regions this year stood at 10.7 percentage points, down from 10.8 points in 2023.

It is the first time this gap has narrowed year-on-year since 2016, when it fell from 7.7 points to 7.5 points.

Since 2016, it grew every year, peaking at 10.8 points in 2023.

But while there has been a slight narrowing of the gap between the highest and lowest performing regions, there are still concerns that there is a significant gulf in attainment.

Chris Zarraga, director of Schools North East, which represents 1,150 schools in the region, said students had achieved outstanding results despite facing “enormous disruption” to their schooling in recent years, particularly in the North East.

He said: “Despite these record GCSEs, exam results in 2024 continue to map the disproportionate impact of the pandemic and ‘cost of living’ crises, as well as the long-term perennial educational challenges that regions like the North East face.

“These results were a test of how successful the previous government’s plans were at supporting education recovery post pandemic, especially in disadvantaged areas like the North East.

“It is clear that current education policy is failing to close the disadvantage gap in attainment.”

Sir Peter Lampl, founder of the Sutton Trust charity and founder of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “The stubborn regional disparities in attainment are unchanged.”

He added: “To close these gaps and enable pupils to reach their potential, we need sustained investment in teaching, particularly in areas with lower attainment.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said inequalities between regions “have been exacerbated over the last decade by funding cuts to schools and community services, the pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis.”

He added: “Schools do their best to support pupils and close those gaps, but they cannot do this alone. Unfortunately, the previous government failed to provide anything like the resources needed to address these inequalities.

“We welcome the new education secretary’s pledge to address regional disparities. We ask that this approach goes beyond the school gates, and looks at services like social care and mental health to enable children everywhere in the country to thrive at school.”

Schools minister Catherine McKinnell said: “I want to congratulate both students and teachers on their achievements today despite the many challenges they’ve had to overcome over the past few years to get here.

“While this is a moment to celebrate, I am deeply concerned about the inequalities in our education system with where you live and what type of school you attend still being too big an influence on your opportunities.”

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