Although the national average Progress 8 score is zero for all students, boys across England have an average score of minus -0.27 which is a full half a grade per GCSE entry behind the girls. For the last three years in succession, the progress of the Year 11 boys at NSB is well  over three quarters of a grade higher than the national average for boys. With a score of +0.52 for 2019, this is also the third consecutive year that NSB have topped Northampton’s league tables for boys’ progress and the second year in a row that the school has been ranked as the number one or two state funded school in Northamptonshire for all four national key performance indicators for boys’ achievement – Progress 8, average grade per GCSE entry (5.8), percentage of the cohort achieving Grade 5 and above in English and Maths (72%) and the average grade per EBacc subject entry (5.37).

Headteacher, Richard Bernard, stated:
'I am delighted that we have bucked the national trend in maintaining such outstanding GCSE achievement over a long period of time. I am particularly pleased with the Progress 8 score of our low prior attainment boys at +0.88 which proves that a rigorous academic GCSE curriculum can be equally successful for boys of all abilities.’