In-Depth Academic Performance
Parkstone Grammar School is a selective institution, and its exam results reflect a highly academic intake. Understanding these figures requires looking at both raw achievement and the progress students make over their time at the school. Here is a detailed breakdown of the school's performance metrics from the Department for Education.
Attainment 8
Attainment 8 measures a student's average grade across eight key subjects, including English and Maths. For 2024-2025, Parkstone Grammar achieved a score of 68.5. To put this in perspective, the average score across all BCP secondary schools is 50.77, and the England national average is 46.3. Parkstone Grammar ranks 4 of 22 among all published BCP schools, firmly placing it in the top tier locally. The school has also maintained this high standard year-on-year, up slightly from 67.8 in the previous year.
Progress 8
Progress 8 measures how much progress students make from the end of primary school (Key Stage 2) to the end of secondary school (Key Stage 4), compared to students nationally with similar starting points. A score of 0 means students made average progress. It is important to note that Progress 8 was not published nationally for the 2024-2025 cohort because those students did not sit KS2 SATs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the most recent available data is from 2023-2024, where Parkstone Grammar achieved a score of +0.43. This means students achieved nearly half a grade higher per subject than expected. This score ranks the school 6 of 21 out of all BCP schools.
The Basics (9-5 and 9-4 in English and Maths)
The "Basics" metric tracks the percentage of students achieving a strong pass (grades 9-5) or a standard pass (grades 9-4) in both English and Mathematics. At Parkstone Grammar, a remarkable 90.3% of students achieved a strong pass in 2024-2025. Furthermore, 97.8% achieved a standard pass. These exceptionally high figures are typical for a selective grammar school and demonstrate that virtually the entire cohort masters core literacy and numeracy skills.
The English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
The EBacc is a set of core academic subjects (English, maths, sciences, a language, and history or geography). The EBacc Average Point Score (APS) calculates the average grade students achieve across these subjects. Parkstone Grammar boasts an EBacc APS of 6.12, ranking 4 of 22 in the BCP area, far exceeding the local average of 4.56. Additionally, 46.2% of the cohort were entered for the full EBacc suite of qualifications.
Disadvantaged Pupil Performance
It is also crucial to examine how a school supports its disadvantaged pupils. The Attainment 8 score for disadvantaged students at Parkstone Grammar is 58.4. While this is lower than the whole-school average of 68.5, it remains significantly higher than the average for all students across many non-selective schools in the region.