GCSE results set to be revealed

Hundreds of thousands of pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are finding out their GCSE results.

There have been forecasts that this year’s results might be affected by a high number of pupils re-taking exams.

Government plans in England to encourage more pupils to get GCSEs in maths and English required re-sits for tens of thousands who failed last year.

Prof Alan Smithers of Buckingham University says this could push down the proportion of top grades this year.

“The results this year will be very close to what they were last year, but the increase in people repeating maths and English could lower the top grades slightly,” says Prof Smithers, director of Buckingham University’s Centre for Education and Employment Research.

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There were more than 350,000 GCSE entries among these pupils, re-taking English and maths after Year 11, up by a quarter on last year.

Last year, the headline figures showed the proportion of A* to C grades rose to 69%, up from 68.8% last year, but A* grades fell by 0.1 percentage points to 6%.

There has been a slight increase in the number of GCSE entries this year – with almost five million GCSE results set to be issued on Thursday.

As well as more pupils re-taking exams beyond the age of 16, it is expected that there will be a continuing decline in pupils taking exams a year early.

League tables now only count the first time a pupil sits an exam, discouraging entries by younger pupils.

There has also been speculation about whether the overlap between the exam season and the Euro 2016 football tournament will affect results – particularly in Wales.

This will be the last year before the start of a major change in how GCSEs are graded in England and how school performance is measured.

A revised set of GCSE exams are going to graded by numbers – from 9 down to 1 – rather than A* to E in a process that will be phased in from next year.

In addition, a new way of assessing schools in England, to be introduced later this year, will measure how much progress pupils make in secondary schools, rather than their raw results.

Speaking ahead of the results, Chris Keates, leader of the Nasuwt teachers’ union, said: “This apparently minor change masks the most substantial reform in a quarter of a century to the key general qualification offered to learners in England.”
BBC