For years, the most important benchmark of a pupil's performance at GCSE has been a simple one: Did they get five A* to C GCSEs.
For a school, a pupil getting five or more A* to C GCSEs (ideally including Maths and English or Welsh) was regarded as a success - and the higher the percentage of pupils who achieved that level, the better the school was doing.
However, amid criticism this led schools to put disproportionate effort into getting children who might get a D into the all important C grade at the expense of helping all pupils achieve their potential, this year it is changing in Wales .
From September 2019, the traditional secondary school rating system of the gold standard five A*s to C GCSE grades will be scrapped by the Welsh Government and replaced with a points score.
From next month secondary school performance will be measured by the Welsh Government on a “capped nine points score” which includes reporting on GCSEs which indicate a pupil’s outcomes in literacy, numeracy and science.
The new measure is known as the The Capped 9 Points Score.
This is how it works:
- There are nine qualifications that count in this measure – three fixed slots and six open slots.
- The fixed slots has to be a subject from the areas of literacy, numeracy and science.
- Literacy slot - either GCSE English language, Welsh language or the literature exams can count
- Numeracy slot - either GCSE maths or GCSE mathematics-numeracy can count
- Science slot – any science GCSE counts (where a student has a double award or the three separate sciences, the best grade counts)
The remaining six slots can use GCSEs that haven’t been used in the three slots above or equivalent qualifications, for example BTEC or the Welsh Bacc skills Challenge Certificate.
Only the first result that is awarded for each student counts. If a student has re-sat an exam and improved their grade it is the first one that is used in the school performance measure calculation, not the last one.
The measure is calculated for each student – points are allocated to each grade on a sliding scale from A* to G. All students scores in a school are then averaged to give the school score.
So a Grade A* at GCSE would receive 58 points, a Grade A would receive 52 points, a B would get 46 points, a C 40 points.
A Welsh Government spokesman said:“We have been working with secondary schools on a range of interim performance measures that place a greater focus on raising our aspirations for all learners.
“These new measures will recognise the achievement of higher grades, as well as the efforts of pupils who do not achieve the C grade, removing the narrow focus on the C/D grade boundary of the previous measures.
“The new measures will include the best outcomes in literacy, numeracy and science GCSEs, as well as pupils’ best results for six other GCSEs, or equivalent approved qualifications, in addition to the Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate points score.”
