How to access GCSE grades by subject for a school

[Gonzoo]

Can anyone point in the right direction? I'm trying to find last years GCSE results by subject for a school and not managing that level of data.

They aren't under any obligation to publish it, so you should just ask the school directly if the info is available.

Could you get it under the freedom of information act? It seems absurd that they can suppress it.

Good schools are usually proud of their results and publish a table showing grades per subject. If your school website doesn't show that, then you have to wonder what they are hiding!

If, for instance, small # of kids take a GCSE, publishing the results in too much detail by subject could reveal the real results of one of them. This would violate privacy & trumps the FOI access.

Typically what you might read is
20% got 7+
50% got 4-6
30% got < 4.
That is less likely to violate privacy. Is it the level of detail you want?

As if schools don't have enough obligatory paperwork already.

What year applies? DD did French GCSE at end of yr10. Does that result go into the results table for when she finished yr10 or when she finished yr11 (since she's part of the yr11 cohort, you might want the results for her cohort not for those who completed that year).

What if some grades are still being appealed, which version do you want?

The level of detail you describe would be just fine. The school is not a good school. They have not published the data. It's also not a small school so I can't imagine it would violate anyone's privacy.

As if schools don't have enough obligatory paperwork already.

They already have the tabulations for other reasons - it's just a matter of publishing them on their website or making them available to those who ask. Certainly not asking them to produce something they don't already have.

It is possible but the instructions here are a bit of an epic read:
www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/gcse_a_level_results

@janinlondon thank you!

why do you want to know?
you certainly do not NEED to know

FFS. Really @Talkinpeece? Why do you want to be on a thread when you have nothing to contribute? I don't want nor NEED to explain myself to you. Poor form.

Gonzoo
For Data protection reasons the school is unlikely to tell you detailed grades.
And actually they only telly you how that cohort behaved, rather than anything about your childs cohort.

As a school governor I had to study detailed results (to answer questions from ofsted)
and the more I looked the more I realised that fine tooth data is less useful than rolling averages

I'm not looking for fine tooth data. I want any data at all on how the school is performing at GCSE in the sciences.

Are the tabulations that schools have for internal reasons & to guide themselves only, or do they have to report them to Ofsted?

The reliability of data produced for internal-only reasons & for sharing with outside parties is often totally different. Not least because the internal tabulations will be used for a very different purpose than what OP wants (I'll wager). So it does create an extra burden on school if school thinks they need to increase the reliability of the tables enough to withstand external scrutiny; I bet OP would complain very loudly if the numbers she was given turned out to have errors in them, even though they might be fine as they are for school's needs.

I want any data at all on how the school is performing at GCSE in the sciences.
So are you only interested in the kids who take triple science
or will you also look at the kids taking double and foundation science?
And will you take into account the year on year syllabus and political changes around the results
let alone the fluctuation between cohorts as to how many take triple or double
exam stats are NOT simple

No. No actually I wouldn't complain very loudly. Crikey this has struck a nerve. All I want, in broad strokes, is to know how the school is performing in the sciences at GCSE. Did I post in AIBU and not notice?

Our school does publish a table showing the number taking each gcse, the number of 9s,8s,7s,6s etc and the same for A levels too.

They keep a list of %A* s As Bs CS etc showing the last 6 years results

Gonzoo
All I want, in broad strokes, is to know how the school is performing in the sciences at GCSE
Single / double / triple?
Value added ?
Curriculum changes ?

I love stats (I'm currently working on a project that uses the full national KS2 tables - 16500 lines and 120 columns)

but I struggle to understand how the data you want could be put into a useful format
and schools are VERY wary of giving out stats that can be misinterpreted

The table shalom describes would be ace. I think it's bullshit to suppress data because it could be misinterpreted. All data can be misinterpreted. I am knee deep in fucking data, not educational data mind, every damn day. I can totally handle the data, promise.

If you swear like that at teachers they will not oblige.
Its up to each school what it wants to do.

My kids school did not normally publish their GCSE details
their college always publishes the full set
www.psc.ac.uk/results-level/alevel
but in a smaller place, that would be a breach of pupil data privacy

@Gonzoo
www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/%20

I think there's only provisions data for this year. I'm not sure grades will show you what you want to know/unsure if they will specify Science. Progress 8 is a much better method of school performance and you can get that/compare that on the website linked.

It was helpful to see what subjects had a high percentage of A*s the year DS was chosing his options. And we did look at the previous year's A level resuts by subject when deciding too.

*provisional

DS knows roughly where he is in his cohort performance wise so it was a good indicater.

shalomjackie
It was helpful to see what subjects had a high percentage of A*s
But science at GCSE is compulsory
and the % of top grades just tells you how selective the school is - because kids doing single award will never get it
so you need to understand the different versions of GCSE