Results – Brannel School

Results 2022: national context

The government has now published performance data from the summer 2022 exams for all secondary schools, sixth forms and colleges. This is the first time that data has been published since the start of the pandemic. The Department for Education has been clear that, given the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on different students, schools and colleges, this data should be treated with caution.

Our Results

Our school Progress 8 figure (the relative progress of our students in eight subjects, compared to students with similar levels of attainment at the end of primary school) -0.20
Our school Attainment 8 figure (the raw score achieved by our students in the same eight subjects) 43.74
The percentage of our students who entered the Ebacc (a government measure which means students took all of English, maths, sciences, a language, and history or geography GCSE) 8.1%
Our school Ebacc average point score (our students’ average score in the same Ebacc subjects) 3.48
The overall figure for how many of our students entered GCSEs 99.9%
How many of our students stay in education or employment after Year 11 94.0%
The percentage of our students achieving a grade 5 or higher in both English and maths GCSEs 36.25%
The percentage of our students achieving a grade 4 or higher in both English and maths GCSEs 60.00%

Why can’t data be compared this year?

The government, and the schools’ inspectorate Ofsted, acknowledge that the impact of the pandemic was not the same across all schools and colleges. Even within a local area or town, the impact of the pandemic was very different. Therefore, they are clear that data can only tell us so much and should be used as the basis for a conversation rather than being used to directly compare one school or college with another.

How were results arrived at last year?

In 2020 and 2021, exams were cancelled due to the pandemic, and grades were based on teacher assessments (with exam boards ensuring consistency). This different form of assessment led to grades, overall, being higher in 2020 and 2021 than they were in pre-pandemic years, when students sat exams.

Last summer saw the first return of exams since 2019, albeit with significant adaptations to recognise that students’ learning had been significantly affected by the pandemic. Nationally, it was determined that grades would, overall, fall roughly halfway between 2019 and 2021. This would enable grades to gradually move back to pre-pandemic levels, while still being as fair as possible to students taking exams in 2022.

The national data that we are compared to reflects this and is higher than in pre-pandemic years.

GCSE Grades explained

When the GCSE grading system had an overhaul in 2017, it changed grades from letters to numbers. GCSE qualifications are now awarded on a grade scale of 9 (the highest grade) to 1 (the lowest).