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KS4 year group statistics - explanatory notes

KS4 Statistics

The statistics shown in GO 4 Schools are driven by the qualifications attached to your subjects. Selecting the correct qualification provides us with numeric points, discount code and pathway information. You can review these values for the qualifications selected in your markbooks by clicking on a qualification on the Subjects and qualifications page.

This is an overview of the Key stage 4 statistics table in GO 4 Schools with links to more detailed articles in our support centre. 

Do you want to see the influence of actual grades in your other grade types? See the article on How actual grades are used in GO 4 Schools.

  • To change this on a school-wide basis, a school manager can use settings on the Grade settings page. By default, these settings will be honoured for statistics throughout GO 4 Schools. Under each individual grade type is a setting called "Actual grades included". You can choose whether to include all actual grades, previous academic year actual grades, or no actual grades for each grade type.

Tips for investigating your statistics

  • View the Subjects and qualifications page by year group to get an overview of the qualifications attached to your subjects. Where a subject does not show a discount code, it will not be counting in your KS4 statistics.
  • Clicking on the values in the key statistics will show you which students are being included in the measures.
  • To investigate the contributing grades for an individual student, it is useful to look at the Progress/Attainment 8 or student breakdown pages. These can be found by clicking through from the data explorers or the student page. This breakdown will show you all grades including previous actual grades, with discount codes, and highlight which grades count in their KS4 attainment.

Inclusion/Exclusion of students in statistics

A student is included in statistics if they satisfy the following rules which can be checked via the Student attributes page:

  • On roll: Student has an "On roll" status of Yes.
  • Enrollment status: Student has an "Enrollment status" of Single registration or Main - Dual registration.
  • Student status: Student is not a leaver and has group membership.

Special Cases:

  • Student statistics rule: This attribute allows your school to specifically include or exclude a student from your statistics.
  • January Census: For year groups 11, 12 & 13 if a student is a leaver after the January census date for the academic year they will be locked into GO 4 Schools and included in your statistics.

DfE rules

We apply the following DfE rules to the KS4 statistics:

  • All level 1 and level 2 vocational qualifications which are in the approved list of non-GCSE qualifications included in statistics which are the same size as a GCSE or larger will count as one entry in the statistics irrespective of its size. (GCSE Combined Science will count as a single entry.)
     
  • First Entry rules - The date of the first (or only) examination in a qualification is taken as the entry date. These dates will be used to decide which qualification counts as the first entry, if a student has not sat the exam yet we set the date to be the end of your school's academic year until an exam date is provided via actuals being uploaded.
    For more information please see the DFE documentation.
  • Discounting & Pathways - Our stats are calculated to take into account discount codes and pathways. Please see the DfE discounting guidance.
     In cases where the student is entered into both pathways and there is no way to identify what pathway the student should take e.g. English GCSE qualification and English Language/Literature GCSE combination with the first entry date and grade data being the same we take the pathway that provides the most positive result in your school`s statistics.

Default Grade

If a student is studying a subject but has no actual grade and no current grade for that subject/qualification, GO 4 Schools treats their grade as 'U'.

English Baccalaureate Statistics

For further information about the performance measures for English Bacclaureate see the article EBACC measures in GO 4 Schools.

Attainment 8 and Progress 8 Statistics

The article Key stage 4 Performance measures – Progress 8 outlines further information about how these measures are handled in GO 4 Schools.

A8 Elements or Slots

GO 4 Schools also calculates A8 and P8 for each of the elements maths, English, Ebacc and Other. These can be viewed by selecting the drop down arrow from the main measure on the year group page.

There are four elements:

  • A double weighted maths element that will contain the point score of the student's EBacc maths qualification.
  • An English element based on the highest point score in a student's EBacc English language or English literature qualification. If a student is in both subjects, then this will be double weighted.
  • An element which can include the three highest point scores from any of the EBacc qualifications in science subjects, computer science, history, geography, and languages. For more information see the list of qualifications that count in the EBacc. The qualifications can count in any combination and there is no requirement to take qualifications in each of the 'pillars' of the EBacc.
  • Other or Open element contains the three highest point scores in any three other subjects, including English language or literature (if not counted in the English slot), further GCSEs (including EBacc subjects that have not been used to fill the EBacc slot) or any other technical awards from the DfE approved list.

If a student has not taken the maximum number of qualifications that count in each group then they will have an empty slot.

Which students are included in the A8 & P8 measures?

The students must have KS2 scaled scores present to be included in the Progress 8 measure for English Reading and Maths, and they must also belong to a subject studying an eligible qualification to fill slots in each of the elements. Students with no prior attainment at KS2 are not included in the P8 calculation but are still included in the A8 calculation. We suggest schools check KS2 data for new students in year and use Teacher Assessments in cases where students have been working below the level of the test. Schools can also check KS2 data for their students through the DfE tables checking website.

Also see article KS2 for secondary schools

Empty slots

A student's A8 score is based on the sum of points for grades in each of the English, maths, EBacc and Other elements, and then divided by 10. The total points are divided by 10 even if the student has empty slots. Expanding the measure 'Avg slots filled per student' displays the average number of slots filled for each element. Clicking on the score for any of the A8 or P8 measures will take you to a data explorer page showing all the students in the year group and their individual contribution towards the measure.

For a detailed description of Progress 8 and Attainment 8 measures and exactly how they are calculated, please see the DfE guidance on Progress 8 and Attainment 8.

Tool tip - confidence interval, significance

When you hover over the numerical score for the P8 measure, you will also see a confidence interval value. This value represents the boundaries of the spread of values over which 95% confidence can be reached with the numerical score. The confidence interval is directly related to how many students are included in the P8 measure.

It will also state if the result is significant. A positive score is statistically significant if the lower band of the confidence interval is above zero. A negative score is statistically significant if the upper band of the confidence interval is below zero. The P8 value will be red if it is below the floor standard (-0.5). This will also be shown in the tool tip underneath the significance.

Tool tip - Attainment 8 average grade

When you hover over the numerical score for the Avg Attainment 8 score per student, you will also see it expressed as an average grade. i.e., Average grade is between GCSE 7 and 5.5.

English Statistics

For a student to count for English in the KS4 performance tables the student must be taking either English Language or English Literature. If a student has both English Language and English Literatures subjects, the higher grade is double weighted in the English element of the Attainment 8 measure. 

If only language or literature is taken then this will count in the English slot, but will not be double-weighted

Maths Statistics

Only mathematics qualifications which also count towards the EBacc count in the mathematics slot. GCSEs (9-1) in mathematics or AS levels in mathematics will count towards the EBacc and in the mathematics slot of Progress 8.

Science Statistics

GCSEs in biology, chemistry, physics and computer science will each take up one slot and can count in A8 in any combination. The combined science (double award) can take up two slots in either the EBacc or open elements of A8 where this represents the highest relevant grades achieved. One grade from this qualification can fill one slot if higher grades are achieved in other qualifications.

Grade 5 or above in English and Maths ('The Basics')

This was a new school performance measure introduced alongside Progress 8 and Attainment 8. It is sometimes referred to as 'The Basics'. It is the % of students who achieve a grade 5 or above in both maths and either English language or English literature (there is no requirement to take both). Grade 5 and above is also known as a 'Strong pass'. Grade 4 and above is a 'Standard pass' and is a Level 2 qualification. Clicking on the drop down will display the percentage of students at each grade level and identify where students have maths but not English or vice versa. Clicking on the numeric value will give details of students who have achieved/not achieved the measure.