English and maths resit scores have been a key measure in the performance tables and are also a condition for funding for Post 16 (for a student doing a programme of 150 hours or more). Individual school data on this measure for Academic years 2020, 2021 and 2022 was not published and will not be published for Academic year (AY) 2023. As stated in the 16-18 accountability measures technical guidance published in October 2022, Page 66 outlines this measure will be suspended until the outcomes from the 2024 to 2025 academic year. This also states that “we continue to consider whether we could introduce an interim non-progress measure for the 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024 performance measures cohorts, to show some information about the outcomes of students in these qualifications, so that we are not without data on these qualifications at 16 to 18 for the next three years”. As of writing, February 2023 there have been no plans outlined.
Even though there is no national data published many schools will still be looking to demonstrate the progress their students are making in these courses as a key part of their curriculum. It was highlighted in OFSTED’s 2016 annual report as an area of weakness in English schools, so analysing your performance in GO 4 Schools should help you to demonstrate the progress your students are making within your current cohort.
NOTE: In 2019, when this measure was last published, the average progress in English and Maths for students who had not achieved a grade 4 in the relevant GCSE in Y11, was 0.13 and 0.08 respectively.
This document focuses on students studying GCSE qualifications at Post 16 level. Some schools use stepping-stone qualifications such as functional skills and free-standing maths rather than GCSE retakes. As of writing we do not have a specific methodology for tracking progress for non-GCSE qualifications. If this is of interest to you please register your interest via a support ticket.
.Tracking English and maths progress using GCSE qualifications
A markbook should be set up for each subject to include all students in Year 12 that are taking retakes for either English or maths. This should also be created for the Year 13 students who did not achieve a “Grade 4 or above” in Year 12. If these lessons are not timetabled then these subjects can be set up via feed rules (See School Managers guide – Feed rules). Support to update link.
An example of an English retake markbook can be found on our demonstration site in Year 12 in the English department. The markbook format can be copied into your school site from a template markbook (listed under GCSE resits).
For Year 12 a baseline grade should be added which has the students’ results in Year 11 uploaded to it. Most schools set up target grades of grade 4 for all students (the standard pass).
A suggested residual scheme which could be applied to all level 2 progress markbooks is displayed below in Fig. 1. This includes a grade 4 and a 4+ as being on target and a 5- and above as being above target. Residual schemes include functionality to change the number and name of bands as well as the residual ranges.
Fig. 1.
When navigating to the subject page once the markbooks, targets and residual schemes have been set up and there is assessment data to inform the current grade (or if tracking on predicted grade a grade has been entered) there is detail of the distribution of students using the residual scheme above (see Fig. 2.).
Fig.2.
By clicking on a band you can see who are the students in each band as shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4. Is a markbook view with residual bands and residual values turned on Curriculum> Grades>grade settings. This gives further insight and a view of assessment on the right-hand side.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.
With regards to demonstrating progress, in the new subject explorer view, columns can be added which show progress in whole grades. Schools generally tend to look at progress in whole grades as this is similar to the official measure (although this does not take in to account the capping of regressive values at -1 which is a rule for the official measure).
Fig. 5 has been constructed using the add/remove columns above. The columns can be found in the following folders as shown in Fig.6.
Fig.6.
The current grade – baseline can be found in the Grades>Progress: Numeric GCSE points folder.
Fig. 7.
As of writing (May 2023) we do not calculate the score exactly according to the measure (because of the negative capping at -1). However, as outlined above the GO 4 Schools subject pages, markbooks and explorers can provide useful information to support tracking this headline statistic and monitoring student progress.
Further information on this measure can be found in the English and maths progress measure section on page 66 of the Key Stage 5 16-18 Accountability Measures and also in Annex C on page 106.