GCSE results: What kind of info can you have access from a school?

[s4rah19]

Hi, Does anyone know what kind of info you can request from a school? In particular I would like to know DN's individual score for English Literature, the grades his year achieved as a whole, and the grades the year 11's achieved as a whole for English Lit. I'm concerned that some grades for certain pupils in lower sets are way higher than those in the upper sets. Thanks

You can ask for your DN's score (or rather his parents can). You cannot ask for the scores of other students.

So they wouldn't give you a breakdown, for example: 20 students got 4, 35 got 5,2 got a 9?

No, because that is not your business.

Are you suggesting that pupils in lower sets can't get high grades?

I think she's suggesting that her niece/nephew's teacher is to blame.

It is between parents, child and school. They can ask for the mark breakdown and most will publish overall stats by subject but not by group/individual.

In January the progress 8 scores will be released for each school. You can view them once made public.

It will say x% of pupils made xx progress and it should break it down between pupil premium and standard pupils.

You should be able to gauge how badly well your DN did compared to those who are in the lower end of the class sets.

Some schools will publish subject results for the whole year but I've never seen by class before.

You can put in a freedom of information request to the school (assuming it's state). But seriously, why do you care about the performance of children other than your DN?

.....and if there are any obvious problems with the results that suggest poor teaching, it will become very clear during the analysis for senior management. They will then do something about it.

I didn't mean class, I am interested in their results as a whole. I am concerned that the school entered year 10s to inflate their overall score. As far as I am aware this is the first year that year 10s have been entered for English Lit.

I'm not sure how entering year 10s for eng lit will inflate their score.

A school would be crazy to enter year 10s for Lit.

Entering students a year early for an exam doesn't inflate scores, it (on average) depresses them.

It's madness to enter Year 10 for English Lit. I thought all these early entries had gone out of fashion.

There are numerous reasons why some students in a lower set can do better that some students in an upper set.

• work harder
• listen to advice
• attend intervention classes
• in the bottom set for a reason other than ability
• in the lower set because of subject blocking on the timetable
• in a smaller class
• self esteem
• better teacher

Obviously I'm not his parent so I can't do anything about it but I personally don't see what you gain from doing it a year earlier. Surely having a year of extra study has to mean your understanding, writing skills, attitude to school work etc will improve and therefore give you a greater chance of attaining a higher grade?

Y10 lit results seem fine in dd s school. Maybe because it was new for everyone.

When he mentioned in the early part of this year that he might be sitting it I asked him to ask his teacher why they would be doing it a year earlier. The response he got was that they won't have as much time to revisit literature in Year 11 because they need to concentrate on the language part! I sat my GCSE's just over 20 years ago I have no idea if this is how these things are done now?

Our school does not publish (but not for a couple of weeks) a chart showing every subject, how many took it and how many got each grade.

They put it on their website. They do it for A levels and gcses, HPQ and EPQ.

It is very useful when deciding A levels to see what sort of grades they get for each subject.

Thanks for all your comments, It's helpful to hear other views and thoughts on the subject.

My ds is starting y10 soon and he is doing English lit next year ( the only subject done early for him btw )

I would agree that if taken early and many pupils don't do too well then it would reflect badly on the school.
Ds doesn't feel happy about doing it early.
He's studying A Christmas carol, Romeo and Juliet and Blood brothers, isn't taken with any of them :(