Students across the borough have defied the national trend and shown an improvement in GCSE grades.

Results show that 63.6 per cent of Newham’s students achieved five or more A* to C grades including English and maths.

This trend was reflected in eight of the borough’s schools, with Cumberland seeing the largest improvement.

Fifteen pc more students achieved the benchmark than their counterparts last year, while Kingsford saw a 10pc improvement.

Nationally, 66.9pc of all grades awarded were within the A*-C threshold - down 2.1 pc on the previous year.

This summer, the government has also introduced two new performance measuring methods, known as Attainment 8 and Progress 8,

The Attainment 8 measures the achievements of a student across eight qualifications, while Progress 8 measures improvement from the end of primary school to the end of secondary school.

The higher the score, the more progress the student has made compared to the average of students who were at a similar level at the end of primary school.

All bar one of the borough’s schools have Progress 8 measures which are above the national average of zero.

Forest Gate has the highest Progress 8 measure, with 0.98, indicating that pupils have made “very good progress”.

Four other schools also achieved a mark above 0.5, which is c

Cllr Rev. Quintin Peppiatt, cabinet member for children and young people, said: “Our schools have bucked the national trend and we have seen a greater number of students achieve amazing GCSE results compared to last year.

“Our schools and teaching staff should be commended for their hard work and support and I congratulate all our students and wish them all the very best of luck for the future, whatever their plans and ambitions.”

This is the last year that GCSEs will be graded in the current format, with a new 1-9 scale set to be introduced from next summer.

For more GCSE coverage, visit our results section.