Friday brief: GCSE results in North Northants well below national average and falling each year
Today's lead story reveals students in the North of the county are not faring as well as others across the country
The number of pupils in North Northants achieving five GCSES, including English and Maths, is well below the national average and has been falling year on year.
Since the unitary authority, which is the education authority, came into being in 2021 the numbers of students achieving the national standard have been dropping each year and this summer only 58.6 per cent of students achieved grades of 4-9 including Maths and English, six per cent below the national average.
Over the border in West Northants the pass rate this summer was in line with the national average of 64 per cent, however like the North of the county the performance is dropping.
Over North Northants other border in Rutland, pupils are well exceeding the national average worth 76.4 per cent achieving the five GCSE including maths and English standard.
NN Journal has looked at the figures for the past four years and found that In the North of the county in the 2021/22 academic year 64 per cent of pupils were achieving the standard. This fell to 61.2 per cent the following year and 60 per cent the year after.
The county council’s director of children services has overall line management of the school effectiveness teams and since the authority began there has been a significant turnover, with the authority now on its fifth children’s director.
As NN Journal reported last month the authority has also not been planning properly for school places and has had to make urgent decisions about bulge classes and extra capacity.
Almost all schools across Northants are now part of an academy, however the local authorities have a responsibility to promote high standards and support struggling schools.
Cllr Elizabeth Wright, executive Member for Children’s Families and Education, at North Northamptonshire Council, said:
“Variations in school performance are often highly complex, influenced by a wide range of factors. While we’ve seen significant strides in outcomes for pupils with SEND, we recognise that there is still much to do to raise overall pupil performance. As a council, our direct influence extends to just one secondary school in North Northamptonshire, with the remainder operating as academies. However, our commitment remains clear: no child or educational setting should be left behind.
“Earlier this year, we launched our Education Improvement Framework, which places a strong emphasis on improving outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged learners. We are strengthening our training and development offer for school staff and providing targeted support to help schools address persistent absence – an issue that results in many missed learning days.
“Our School Improvement Advisors are working closely with academy trusts to build positive relationships and offer support that can help drive standards across all settings. We’ve also established the Secondary Headteachers Forum, which fosters collaboration, shared learning, and a collective focus on improving standards and outcomes for all. We remain focused on ensuring every child in North Northamptonshire has access to high-quality education, regardless of the school they attend. ”
In West Northants the percentage of students achieving the five GCSE including maths and English standard has dropped from a high of 70.4 per cent in the 2021/22 academic year to 64 per cent this year.
A spokesman for the council said:
“There is no link between the data and WNC during its time as a unitary council.
“Our support services continue to work and engage with all schools to support them in helping pupils achieve the very best that they can. All of the Secondary Schools in West Northamptonshire are Academies which have individual responsibility for measuring their own students’ academic progress and performance. Therefore, the Academies will be best placed to answer any specific questions you have on their performance.”
The Department for Education pays a number of regional schools directors whose remit includes addressing underperformance. Carol Gray is the regional director for the East Midlands. Her office has not responded to emails asking if she has had any involvement with NNC relating to under performance.
We know by her published online expense claims that she had visited the county during her tenure.
Other news:
A further four people have pleaded guilty to their part in the murder of Corby man Ryan Burton.
Ryan, 34, was seriously assaulted earlier this year in Spring Rise Park on Kettering’s Highfield Estate shortly before 7pm on Friday, January 10. He died at University Hospital Coventry six days later.
At the beginning of October, a trial involving six people charged with offences of murder and robbery began at Northampton Crown Court.
Last Friday (November 14), two accused Keiton Underwood, aged 20, of Bridge Street, Desborough, and Ace Hill, 19, of Minden Close, Corby pleaded guilty to murder and Underwood also pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery.
On Wednesday the remaining four defendants pleaded guilty to different offences.
Cameron Williams-Ferguson, 24, of High Street, Kettering and Kyle McSkimming, 23, of Pen Green Lane, Corby pleaded guilty to manslaughter; Connor White, 25, of Spencer Street, Rothwell, pleaded guilty to robbery and a17-year-old boy, who cannot be named due to legal reasons, pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon.
Senior investigating officer detective superintendent Johnny Campbell, said:
“This has been a very complex investigation and I am really pleased that we have succeeded in securing six guilty pleas.
“Sadly, no result, sentence or conclusion at court could ever make up for the loss of Ryan, however I hope his family can take some comfort in the fact that justice has been served to those involved in his murder.”
Hill, Underwood, Williams-Ferguson, McSkimming and White will be sentenced at Northampton Crown Court on December 22, 2025.
The 17-year-old boy will be sentenced on a date yet to be set.
A director of transformation and strategy has been appointed at North Northamptonshire Council (NNC).
Libby Caulfield, will report directly to NNC chief executive Adele Wylie and will be paid up to £126,000 a year, according to an advert published during the recruitment process.
Leader of the council, Cllr Martin Griffiths said:
“The creation of this role was a key recommendation of the team that undertook the peer challenge some months ago, and it is such an important milestone for us as we continue to grow and evolve as a council.”
He said the new director had joined NNC from Impower, an organisation that works closely with councils and public sector partners to deliver large scale change and improvement programmes for public services.
By Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has approved plans for a major housing scheme on the site of a derelict Northampton car dealership and petrol station.
Vistry Homes will turn the brownfield site off Harlestone Road, Duston, into a new residential estate with 82 homes. In September 2025, WNC approved plans to buy the land from the developer to deliver the entire mix of houses and apartment blocks as affordable housing.
This will comprise 31 homes for affordable rent, 26 homes for shared ownership and 25 homes for social rent. One hectare of open space is also proposed alongside the homes, which consists of amenity green spaces and a children’s area of play, as well as the retention of the existing woodland.
The obligation is on Vistry to build out the homes and transfer them at completion, however the cost of WNC’s acquisition of the site has so far been kept confidential.
The scheme received 71 letters of objection, three letters of comment and zero letters of support from members of the public.
It is anticipated that work will start on the site in early 2026, with a planned completion date in 2027.
By Nadia Lincoln
Councillors have agreed to pay a further £1m on the already over-budget Market Square regeneration project, in order to settle a long-running dispute with the developer over costs.
The final spend on the redevelopment now sits at £13.5m – a £5.1m overspend on the original costs set aside from Future High Street Funding in 2021. West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) cabinet considered the negotiated settlement at a meeting last week (November 11), which included bills for project delays and additional work caused by significant archaeological finds, collapsed Victorian sewers and having to divert more underground utilities than anticipated.
The council reported that the contractor had originally claimed for loss and expenses totalling an extra £2.3m on the project. It added that, after lengthy negotiations, the £1m overspend would be the “best final account position that WNC can achieve”, while avoiding high costs from potential adjudication proceedings.
Speaking at the cabinet meeting last week, Conservative Cllr Daniel Lister, who oversaw the redevelopment in his former role as cabinet member for regeneration, said:
“There will be lessons learnt, I’m sure, from the team who are very capable. It was the first scheme that they did.
“They did see cost pressures from Covid to Ukraine, even to pirates. They had many different challenges on that scheme, but what it has done now is kickstart the investment into Northampton.
“I don’t think the value of Market Square, and yes there is an overspend, should be understated because of what it’s done for the town of Northampton.”
Others were more critical of the finances of the project and missed opportunities to limit the overspend.
Lib Dem Cllr Jonathan Harris raised concerns about the same contractor, Stepnell, being used for the ongoing Northampton Public Mortuary development and “alarm bells” about whether they would face a similar costs situation further down the line. Another exempt item on the agenda that evening was also asking the cabinet to approve more funding for the build, on top of the £9.5m already allocated.
Cllr Harris asked:
“Can we please make sure that all of these big projects we really go into them with a sound understanding of what payback looks like?
“It’s so important because we can put money into things and we might get lots of people walking around and it looks great on photos. But, if it’s not having a positive impact on the town from an economic regeneration point of view, I don’t know why we’re doing it.”
Independent Cllr Ian McCord condemned the overspend, adding that the only reason the request for costs had been brought to the meeting in public was because he pushed back on it being signed off in private as an “urgent action”.
He said:
“I seem to have missed the apology from Dan [Cllr Lister] when he spoke. The fact of the matter remains that we started with a project that was promoted at £8.5 million and we managed to bring it in at £13.5 million.
“It’s been mentioned many times – lessons will be learned. At the very best, lessons will be identified. They will only be learned whenever we know that the next contract hasn’t fallen into the same traps as the previous ones.
“We’ve got the same contractor pulling the same tricks, asking for more money. So are the contingencies that we are allowing in these projects right? That’s what really worries me.”
According to the council, negotiations and mediation between the Council and Stepnell have been taking place since August.
By Nadia Lincoln
That is weird. I just received a LinkedIn link to a person who was in the contracts department at WNC.
You are being watched.
A very capable team indeed. Where do they get these monkeys from? Capable of what?
Apparently it takes them centuries to type out anything resembling Shakespeare, so why are Councillors entrusting them with complex contracts. Clearly Stepnell ran rings around them, and what was the Chief Executive, on her £200,000 take, doing in her oversight capacity ?
It was clear to anyone knowing any history of Northampton that there would be issues underground and the contractors knew that also - no fixed price contract then and we'll take the suckers for as much as we can. Here's your envelope.