GCSE grades up on pre-pandemic levels, figures show

by Dorothy Lepkowska

This year’s teacher assessed GCSE grades have seen another rise in success rates — but not at the same level as those recorded by A-level students earlier this week.

Just over 30% of entries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were graded 7 or above, compared with 27.7% in 2020 and 21.9% in 2019. Level 7 and higher is the equivalent of the former A* and A grading.

At grade 4 or above — the equivalent of an old C — the percentage has increased from 69.9% to just over 79% since 2019.

One of the biggest rises in achievement was in mathematics, where the percentage of pupils achieving a grade 4 or above rose from 66.4% in 2020 to 69.2%. In computing, the rise was from 80.1% last year to 82.4%.

A record 3,600 students gained 9s in every subject they entered. Of these, 338 pupils gained the highest grade in 11 or more subjects, up from just 133 pupil in 2019.

State grammar schools in England were the most successful with more than 68% of entries awarded grades 7 and above, a rise of nearly three percentage points compared with 2020. The figure for secondary modern schools was just 20%.

Independent schools, where 70% of A-level entries gained A or above, gave top marks to 61% of GCSE entries, up four percentage points on 2020 and 14 points since 2019.

There was a slight widening of the gap in attainment between pupils who received free school meals and those who did not, analysis by Ofqual, the exam regulator, found. Students with free school meals scored on average 0.1 of a grade lower compared with 2019. Gypsy or Roma students’ outcomes were also down on 2019 by 0.2 of a grade.

Girls outperformed boys in maths in England for the first time since GCSEs were reformed, with 26.4% of girls achiving a 7 or higher compared with 25.5% of boys. In 2019, 20.9% of maths entries by boys gained 7 or above, one percentage point higher than girls.

The number of girls taking science courses at GCSE increased this year in physics, biology and chemistry. Girls now comprise over half of the total number of students taking the three science exams in year 11. However, the number of females taking computing fell for the second year in a row — though girls outperformed boys in grades 7 and above.

Nick Gibb, the schools minister, confirmed this morning that exams would return in 2022, with adjustments to compensate for pandemic disruption. He also ruled out keeping teacher assessment as an alternative to examination, saying exams were “the fairest system of assessing young people. We had to cancel exams this year because they wouldn’t be fair, but we will be getting back to exams in 2022 because they are simply the fairest way of judging a young person’s attainment”.