RECORD GCSE RESULTS FOR UK STUDENTS SEVERELY AFFECTED BY COVID19
HOW YOUR CHILD CAN STILL GET THEIR UNIVERSITY OR COLLEGE OF PREFERENCE EVEN WITH A LOW GRADES AFFECTED BY COVID19 OR BEREVEAMENT
WHAT EVERY PARENT AND PUPILS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS YEAR’S FINAL RESULTS – AS KIDS AS YOUNG AS SIX-YEARS OLD PASSED THE EXAMS IN FLYING COLOURS
By Professor Chris Imafidon – Some pupils from the ethnic minority backgrounds have won places in top universities in the country as a result of remarkable effort and dedication.
Although the overall grades for GCSEs and A-level are better than expected, this year’s school examination and tests were affected at all levels.
The ExcellenceinEducation.org.uk has organised a special 24-hour telephone [+44 7968285848] helpline for parents who are unclear about the results of their children or need guidance with admissions to Colleges and Universities.
There are some indications that BAME pupils may have been disadvantaged by teacher bias in spite of guidelines by the department of Education. In a pandemic, we must all be reminded that the grades awarded cannot be regarded as a true indicator of the students ability but demonstrate the preparations and sequence of events before their school mock exams.
Congratulations to all the youths who have shown remarkable dedication, resilience and focus in the face of lockdowns, school closures, unreliable zoom classes and Microsoft Teams meeting or laboratory simulations.
Teaching and administration staff were suddenly thrown into the very deep end of using technology and tools that were very unfamiliar. Most were totally untrained on how to turn their homes into virtual classrooms and their domestic kitchen into laboratories. Every student became covid19 tester using the new antigen tests on themselves at home with very little supervision at the late stage.
DISORIENTATION OF EDUCATION
Due to the corona restrictions, everything about schooling and learning changed beyond all descriptions. So the learning of new materials changed totally and therefore the performance of individual students altered.
Therefore, if the published grades are inconsistent with previous performance, as a parent, one should immediately write to the subject-specific teacher and copy the examination officer. Evidence of past tests demonstrating this error should be sent to the school’s Examination officer and the University immediately notified of the error and steps taken to correct it. Parents must review each end of Key stage performance and plot the progression from KS1 to KS2, then compare KS3 to KS4. For A-level, every other non-academic achievements, attainments and accomplishments in extracurricular activities should be presented particularly if sixth form was undertaken in a different school.
COVID CONFUSION AND CLASSROOM BASED TESTS
Earlier this year, because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the government decided that it was no longer fair for many exams and assessments to go ahead as planned this summer. It was confirmed that students taking GCSE, AS and A levels regulated by Ofqual would be awarded grades based on an assessment by their teachers. Ofqual and the Department for Education consulted jointly on the alternative arrangements to summer exams, and the outcome of this consultation was announced in February. Teachers were expected to use a range of evidence to make a judgement about the grade at which their students have performed, focusing on the content that students have been taught.
As part of these arrangements, exam boards have implemented a process of quality assurance. Each school and college was required to put in place an internal quality assurance process, which was defined in their centre policy. Centres’ internal quality assurance included internal standardisation of marking and grading judgements. As part of the external quality assurance, exam boards reviewed the centre policies for all centres. Exam boards also requested evidence from all centres and checked the evidence used to support teacher grades for some students in a sample of centres. We have been monitoring the quality assurance carried out by the exam boards and provide a brief overview in this report. We will provide more detail of our monitoring of exam board delivery in our report on the summer series that we will publish in December 2021.
CHANGED DAYS OF RESULT PUBLICATION FOR BOTH GCSEs AND A-LEVELS
Results days this summer are 10 August for AS and A levels, and 12 August for GCSEs. As in other years, JCQ publish national results statistics on results days. This includes overall outcomes for each qualification (GCSE, AS and A level), as well as a breakdown by subject group and gender. To supplement these analyses, we have provided further breakdowns in this report. This initial publication focuses on A level results, and further analyses of GCSE results will be added on 12 August. Given the small (and declining) entry for AS, we have not provided any breakdowns of results for AS qualifications.
Our analyses focus on qualifications regulated by Ofqual and include only students in England. Where appropriate, we focus on particular age groups – typically the target age group for each qualification (16-year-olds for GCSE and 18-year-olds for A level). Our results analyses are based on data submitted to Ofqual by exam boards around a week before results are issued. Given this, there is likely to be a small amount of missing data for results that were not processed at that time. This is unlikely to impact on the overall trends though, and any data that is missing is likely to be missing at random.
It should also be noted that there are some small differences in the figures that we have included in this report that relate to previous years, compared to the report that we published following summer 2020. This is generally due to us having updated data, but in the centre type analysis it is also due to us only including centres with entries in all years (meaning some centres that were included in the analysis that we published in 2020 do not have entries in 2021, so are excluded from the historical figures). Again, these small differences do not impact on the overall trends.
A separate report for general qualifications examining outcomes for students, with different protected characteristics and socio-economic status will be published soon.
We have also published 2 separate reports for vocational and technical qualifications, providing analyses of entries and outcomes, and outcomes for students with different protected characteristics.
Analyses of A level results
This section provides an overview of our analyses of A level results. To provide context, we initially consider overall A level outcomes compared to 2020, by drawing on the results statistics published by JCQ (since these are most complete). As outlined above, our own analyses use data submitted to us by exam boards around a week before results are issued, meaning that there might be some small differences in the total number of students compared to the more complete JCQ figures. Unless otherwise noted, outcomes are presented as cumulative percentages throughout this report (including for the JCQ figures – meaning grade A outcomes refers to grade A and above).
Overall A level outcomes compared to 2020
JCQ have published overall A level results for summer 2021, including breakdowns by subject group and gender. These figures show that for all students in England, overall A level outcomes are higher at the top grades (A* to B) compared to 2020, and relatively stable at the lower grades (C to E) The greatest percentage point (pp) increase compared to summer 2020 is at grade A (+6.2pp), followed by grade A* (+4.8pp) and B (+4.4pp). At the lower grades, outcomes are within 1pp of the outcomes in summer 2020 (+0.7pp at grade C, -0.6pp at grade D, and -0.2pp at grade E). These trends are similar when considering all students or just 18-year-old students.
A level students are generally more able to study independently than younger students and have more study time for each subject. There has been an increase in outcomes at the top grades and stability at lower grades. This may be because the most academically able students were most able to study independently.
The JCQ figures also show that, although outcomes are higher than summer 2020 in all subjects at the top grades, the extent of the difference varies by subject and grade. For example, at grade A, outcomes are higher than 2020 to the greatest extent in music (+13.1pp), followed by physical education (+11.1pp) and design & technology (+9.4pp). Outcomes are higher than 2020 to the least extent in other sciences (+2.8pp), further maths (+4.0pp) and sociology and law (both +4.6%). At grade A* the pattern is slightly different, and the greatest difference compared to 2020 is for ‘other’ modern foreign languages (+19.2pp), followed by German (+11.2pp) and music (+10.5pp). The smallest increases compared to 2020 are for ‘other’ sciences (+0.8pp), law (+1.9%) and sociology (+2.4pp).
Analyses of GCSE results
This section provides an overview of our analyses for GCSE. The analyses are broadly similar to those undertaken for A level. However, given that students typically take a larger number of subjects at GCSE, some of the A level analyses are not replicated here – in particular, those relating to grade combinations. This is also because those analyses are more relevant to A level results, since they are directly relevant to HE admissions. As for A level, our analyses use data submitted to us by exam boards around a week before results are issued, meaning that there might be some small differences in the total number of students compared to the more complete JCQ figures.
Overall GCSE outcomes compared to 2020
JCQ have published overall GCSE results for summer 2021, including breakdowns by subject group and gender. These figures show that for all students in England, overall GCSE outcomes are higher at grade 7 compared to 2020 (+2.6pp), and relatively stable at grade 4 (+1.0pp) and grade 1 (-0.6pp). The trends are similar when considering outcomes for 16-year-olds, with the greatest increase at grade 7 (+2.5%), and relatively stable outcomes at grade 4 (+0.3pp) and grade 1 (-0.4pp).
The JCQ figures also show that, although outcomes are higher than summer 2020 in all subjects at the top grades, the extent of the differences vary by subject. For example, at grade 7 outcomes are higher than 2020 for all students to the greatest extent in physical education (+7.1pp), followed by economics (+6.3pp) and computing and social science subjects (both +5.9pp). The smallest increase at grade 7 is for art and design (+0.6pp) and ‘other’ sciences (+0.9pp). At grade 4 the pattern is slightly different and outcomes are more stable compared to 2020, with increases in some subjects and decreases in others.
Number and average number of GCSE qualifications per student
As for A level, we have calculated the average number of GCSEs per student and the number of GCSEs per student (for 16-year-olds taking at least one GCSE each year). Table 10 shows that the average number of GCSEs per student has remained relatively stable over time, and consistent between 2020 and 2021. Furthermore, the number of qualifications per student has also remained relatively stable (Table 11), with the majority of students taking 7 to 9 GCSEs. There has been a slight increase in the percentage of students taking 7 or 8 GCSEs over time, and a slight decrease in the percentage of students taking 9 or 10+ GCSEs.
Professor Chris Imafidon is chair, ExcellenceinEducation.org.uk, an alliance of inner-city educational charities and institutions that mentors youths, women and professionals in the commonwealth. He is a multi-Guinness World record holder; internationally renowned adviser to monarchs, governments, presidents and corporate leaders; Mentor to multi-millionaire tech entrepreneurs & many world record holders. His STEM and other research and innovation have been recognised internationally, winning multiple awards. Professor Imafidon is 5X International Bestselling author; Mentor to New York Times Bestellers and a Sunday Times Op-ed author, a Wall Street Journal BestSelling author and a regular contributor to #AfricanVoice;. [Twitter @ChrisImafidon; Instagram @CoImafidon; Facebook/Linkedln/ClubHouse –Professor Chris Imafidon
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
RIGHT HONORABLE GAVIN WILLIAMSON, CBE
The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE was appointed Secretary of State for Education on 24 July 2019. He was Secretary of State for Defence from 2 November 2017 to 1 May 2019. He was Chief Whip (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury) from 14 July 2016 to 2 November 2017. He was elected Conservative MP for South Staffordshire in May 2010. As the Secretary of State is responsible for the work of the Department for Education.
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