The Harris Group

There were celebrations across the Harris Federation’s Sixth Forms today as over 3,000 students collected their A Level results.  For a third year in a row, our A Level results show an impressive improvement on all measures across the Federation.

Over 75% of all A Level grades were awarded at C or above and over 85% of Vocational grades were awarded at Distinction or above.  As further evidence of improvement, our students achieved more top grades than last year; 432 A*s compared to 339 last year and 1,089 A grades compared to 982 in 2024.

With these results, our students are now able to take up places on highly competitive courses at some of the country’s leading universities.  Across the Federation’s Sixth Forms, a quarter of students are going to Russell Group universities.

As things stand, 52 students have secured places at Oxbridge with some becoming the first at their school to do so including Corey from Harris Garrard Academy and Margot at Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich.  There are also at least 50 Harris students with places for medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine with many others securing places on other health and social care courses including nursing and midwifery.

Three Academies – Harris Rainham Sixth Form, Harris Academy Wimbledon and Harris Academy Sutton - have celebrated their first set of A Level results.  They all achieved very pleasing results providing strong platforms on which to build in future years.  In their first year of results, both Wimbledon and Sutton even saw students secure places at the University of Cambridge.

Each year, our Academies welcome students who are new to the country helping them navigate the English school system and fill in any gaps in their learning.  Thanks to the support and guidance of our staff, these students have made exceptional progress and are celebrating fantastic achievements today including Harris Westminster Sixth Form’s Angelina who arrived in the UK from Ukraine three months after the start of the war in 2022.  With only a basic grasp of English, Angelina had to very quickly get to grips with the English curriculum and catch up – particularly in English and the humanities.  Today Angelina met her offer to study History at Merton College, University of Oxford – an incredible feat given she has only been in the UK just over three years.

Likewise, Harris Academy Riverside’s Amanjot moved to the UK from India six months before taking his GCSEs with little prior experience of speaking English.  He quickly got to grips with the English school system, filling in as many gaps as possible and working as hard as he could.  Today Amanjot secured a place to study Economics and Management at St Catherine’s College, Oxford.

Our vocational students have performed excellently once again with many now enrolling on highly competitive Degree Apprenticeships with prestigious institutions such as Deloitte, Amazon and British Airways.

This year, we are also celebrating the achievements of students who have benefited from a primary and secondary education within the Harris Federation – either at one of our all-through schools or at one of our many high-performing primary academies.  Many of these students have received excellent results today with an impressive number achieving straight A*/A grades.

With over 40% of our Sixth Formers coming from low income backgrounds, we have truly opened the door for these young people and given them the opportunity to progress onto higher education and pursue successful and rewarding careers.