Another great year for GCSE students as they get their results

The GCSE exam has changed significantly this year with students being awarded numbered grades as opposed to letters as in the past.

A 9 is the highest grade that can be achieved and 4 is considered a pass.

Any grade 7 to 9 is equivalent to an A or A* in the old grading system.

A very small number of subjects have remained on the old grading system.

Level 3 qualifications such as AS levels have also remained on the old grading system

The number of subjects which count as a GCSE has also decreased and the difficulty of the exams has increased.

Many students at Queen Elizabeth’s High School (QEHS) take a mixture of GCSE and AS level subjects in Year 11 and these students will therefore receive a mixture of numbers and grades.

Students at QEHS have always taken academic subjects which are the ones which continue to count as GCSEs and all students take 10 or 11 GCSEs.

David Allsop, headteacher, said: “I congratulate all of the students and staff at QEHS who have worked so hard to gain high grades this year.

“The changes to the GCSE have added extra pressure to our work but we have again demonstrated that with hard working students, support from the home and dedicated teachers, success will follow.

“Ofqual has said that students who achieved a 9 have ‘performed exceptionally’ and so for 80 per cent of our students have achieved at least one grade 9 means the vast majority of our students can say they have performed exceptionally well in at least one of their subjects.

“Every single grade is the result of the hard work of that student and those students who have achieved grades 4 and above should be very pleased.

“However, what is particularly pleasing are the 9 students who gained 8 or more grade 9 or A*.

“Before the exams were released, Ofqual indicated that only the top 1.5 per cent of students in the country would achieve straight grade 9s so these students have done incredibly well.

“As these are brand new GCSE exams it is not possible to compare with previous years but initial indications using national statistical models are that students at QEHS have made significantly better progress than their peers in other schools nationally.

“Overall, I am really pleased for our students who work so hard for these exams and I would like to wish them all the very best in their endeavors post 16 .”

Overall 48 per cent of entries were awarded 7 or above, which is the A/A* equivalent.

This is a 25 per cent increase on last year, 45 per cent gained five or more 7 to 9 grades, 39 per cent, which was 70 students, gained six or more 7 to 9 grades, 26 per cent gained seven or more 7 to 9 grades.

Nine students gained straight grade 9 or equivalent in their best eight subjects placing them in the top 1.5 per cent in the country, 80 per cent of students gained at least one 7 to 9 or A/A* grade or equivalent.

There was 100 per cent of the Pupil Premium students gaining five or more good passes and 40 per cent of the Pupil Premium students gained five or more 7 to 9 grades. which is equivalent to give or more A*/A grades.