Following requests from schools, two new measures were added to the KS3/4 Headlines Summary report:
- Students achieving 5 Standard Passes inc. EM
- Students achieving 5 Strong Passes inc. EM
These measures are intended to allow schools to see how their 2017 (and beyond) cohorts might have performed in both the old 5 A*-C including English and Maths measure, and how they might perform in an updated measure.
The only real difference between the measures is the minimum grade required in any reformed GCSE qualification, since a grade 4 will be good enough to count towards the “Standard Passes” measure but students will need a grade 5 to count towards the “Strong Passes” measure.
A C grade (or better) in an unreformed GCSE will count towards both measures.
We would expect schools to primarily use these new measures for the 2017 and beyond cohorts. However, the figures will still be produced when publishing using the DfE’s 2016 reporting rules, but the students achieving each measure will be identical.
| Information on the new strong and standard grades, as well as the rough equivalence between unreformed A*-C and reformed 9-4 grades, can be found by clicking the link here. |
Students achieving 5 Standard Passes inc. EM
This measure will reflect how students might have performed in the old “5 A*-C inc. EM” measure. The equivalence between reformed and unreformed grades used here is based on the DfE’s statement that “a grade 4 and above will be equivalent to a C and above”.
Grades counting towards this measure are:
- 9-4 grades in reformed GCSEs
- A*-C grades in unreformed GCSEs
- Level 2 passes in non-GCSEs and AS levels
In order to achieve this measure, students will need to achieve a pass in the “9-4 in English and Maths” measure and have 3 additional grades that would have been eligible to count towards the old 5 A*-C inc. EM measure.
To count towards the measure, each grade needs to meet a minimum points threshold. The points thresholds vary depending on both the grade type and the DfE rules used, as shown in the table below:
Students achieving 5 Strong Passes inc. EM
This measure will reflect how students might perform in an updated “5 A*-C inc. EM” measure. Grades counting towards this measure are:
- 9-5 grades in reformed GCSEs
- A*-C grades in unreformed GCSEs
- Level 2 passes in non-GCSEs and AS levels
In order to achieve this measure, students will need to achieve a pass in the “9-5 in English and Maths” measure and have 3 additional grades that would have been eligible to count towards the old 5 A*-C inc. EM measure.
To count towards the measure, each grade needs to meet a minimum points threshold. The points thresholds vary depending on both the grade type and the DfE rules used, as shown in the table below:
| In the 2017 (and beyond) performance tables, the reformed Combined Science split double qualification will only count as 1 entry towards these measures but can still count as 2 entries towards other Headline figures, such as A8/P8 and EBacc. |
Thanks for reading!