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GCSE Reforms

Message from the DfE:

  • The primary purpose of GCSEs is to show the progress and achievement of students of all abilities against demanding and fulfilling subject content. GCSEs must also enable progression to further vocational and academic study, and make sure young people gain the skills they need to get a good job; an apprenticeship; or a university place and success in life.
  • We have reformed GCSEs, making them more rigorous and ensuring that they teach the core knowledge demanded by employers and by further and high educational institutions.
  • New GCSEs will remain universal qualifications which are accessible, with good teaching, to the same proportion of students currently sitting GCSEs at the end of key stage 4. Reformed GCSEs will be graded on a new 9 – 1 scale. Under the new grading scale a ‘good pass’ (currently a C grade) will become a grade 5. The new ‘good pass’ is comparable to a high C or low B under the current system, making it broadly in line with the average performance of pupils in top-performing countries such as Finland, Canada, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The new “good pass” measure will be used to hold the Government and schools to account through the performance tables.

Please find below the PowerPoint and handout from the presentation given to parents on Thursday 12th November 2015, which details some of the general changes that are happening with the new GCSEs, as well as the more specific changes that are occurring in English and Maths.  Also below you will find the letter sent to parents of Year 9 and 10 alongside their reports.

GCSE Reforms Timeline
GCSE Reforms Parents Presentation
GCSE Reforms letter to Year 9/10 Parents