GCSE | Schools Week

Educational disadvantage: how does England compare?

We know there’s work to do with the disadvantage gap in this country – but where do we stand on the international scale, asks Natalie Perera? The gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is the leading measure used by policymakers to gauge the state of educational inequality in England. Organisations such as […]

Disadvantaged pupils’ maths attainment sees England fall behind

England needs to double the number of disadvantaged pupils who achieve the top GCSE grades in maths to catch up with the best-performing countries around the world, according to new Education Policy Institute (EPI) research. Just one in 10 disadvantaged pupils in England achieve a grade 7, 8 or 9 in GCSE maths, while nearly twice […]

EEF predicts ‘little or no headway’ in closing attainment gap by 2021

Schools are expected to make “little or no headway” in closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their better-off classmates over the next few years, the Education Endowment Fund has warned. Based on last year’s key stage 2 results, the charity predicts that the gap between the Attainment 8 scores of the poorest pupils […]

GCSE grade changes increase by 52% – mostly due to GCSE English

The number of GCSE grades changed at a marking review this year has increased by 52 per cent, with over 25,000 more changes than in 2016. This year, 73,840 GCSE grades were changed compared with 48,430 last year. Only three per cent more GCSE exams were sat this year. Ofqual said the rise “stemmed principally […]

EBacc results 2017: Entries drop as academies perform strongest

The government has released provisional key stage 4 data this morning that reveals how schools have fared in headline accountability measures. The data includes figures on the new Progress and Attainment 8 measures (our analysis so far here) and also provides an update on EBacc figures. Here we round up the key findings from the […]

New GCSEs dogged by ‘long tail of underachievement’

England’s efforts to boost its standing in global education rankings by overhauling the way it grades maths and English GCSEs will be dogged by the “long tail of underachievement”, according to a new report. On the eve of the results of the new 9 – 1 GCSE grades, the Education Policy Institute has sounded a note of caution, in […]

Poor verbal skills weaken 30,000 pupils’ GCSEs

Tens of thousands of pupils with strong spatial skills are failing to get top grades because their talents are masked by poor verbal skills, according to a new study of more than 20,000 children. Research published today by schools assessment provider GL Assessment suggests that about 30,000 GCSE pupils with “hidden talents” each year underperform […]