A-level results in England show biggest drop on record
Richard Adams
A-level grades awarded to students in England have shown their biggest drop after results plummeted across the board in line with the government’s policy of enforcing a return to pre-pandemic grading.
Five thousand fewer students in England gained three A* grades than in 2022, while the proportion of top A*-A grades shrank from 35.9% to 26.5% within a year.
Headteachers said they were alarmed to see that in some cases grading was even more stringent than the last set of A-level exams taken before the pandemic, with the proportion of A*-C grades this year lower than those awarded in 2019 because of a sharp increase in the number of lowest grades.
For the first time, more than one in 10 entries in England were awarded an E or U (unclassified), a 10% increase on such grades in 2019. The increase is likely to be the result of more students taking A-levels based on their GCSE results awarded by teacher assessment when exams were cancelled in 2021.
England’s results also showed a large gap in top grades compared with Wales and Northern Ireland, where regulators have taken into account the long-term impact of the pandemic through more generous grading.
Northern Ireland awarded A*-A grades to 37.5% of its A-level entries, while Wales awarded 34% – in stark contrast to the 26.5% in England.
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Lovely video this: “I’ll finally have a restful sleep!”
Nice story from Pontypridd in Wales, where a budding quantum physicist got four A*s and secured a place at the University of Oxford.
Jacob Jones, 18, got four A*s in physics, maths, further maths and chemistry after studying at Coleg y Cymoedd (meaning college of the valleys), and will study physics at Oxford’s Jesus College in September.
Apparently, despite being academic, he didn’t think that he was “Oxford worthy” until he received outstanding grades in his AS-levels, making him think that applying was worth a shot.
He went to two four-day residential summer schools – one research-focused programme at University College London (UCL) and another more hands-on scheme at Oxford, where he lived on site and attended lectures like an undergraduate.
Jacob was part of the Seren programme while at college – a Welsh government funded scheme aimed at supporting Wales’s brightest state school learners, regardless of their background or financial situation.
He said:
Although I got good grades in my GCSEs, I hadn’t thought about going to Oxford before. It’s got such a high reputation so I didn’t think I would be good enough to go there.
[…]
I worked so hard to prepare for my interview and admissions test and the support I had from my college and the Seren programme really helped make a difference. I still couldn’t believe it when I got my place though as I had struggled with one of the exam questions and I’d lost hope after that.
“I’m now so excited to start university now. I picked Jesus College because it’s known as the ‘Welsh college’ – moving to Oxford will be a big change but hopefully being there will provide a sense of home.
Looking ahead, the young man said he is open-minded about future careers but was interested in quantum physics.
He added:
I want to learn everything there is to learn about the subject. I hope to get my master’s and eventually a PhD, and then maybe go into a research-based role.
Royal College of Nursing: 13% drop in people taking up nursing courses deliver blow to government’s NHS workforce plan
The Royal College of Nursing has analysed Ucas acceptance statistics and found a 13% drop in the number of people accepting places on nursing courses in England.
RCN deputy director for nursing, Dr Nichola Ashby, said:
The UK government has stumbled at the first hurdle of their NHS workforce plan, with 13% fewer people expected to take up nursing courses this year in England. These numbers are not just a sad story for today, but a story for years to come of how the ministers baked future nursing shortages into the NHS.
If the NHS workforce plan is to succeed, the UK government must start providing details on how the plan will begin to deliver the students the NHS needs to see for the future workforce. It must fund more university places for nursing students and remove the burden of student debt and tuition fees from prospective nurses.
Lib Dems: Sunak owes students an apology
After the biggest drop in A-level results on record, the prime minister owes students an apology, says Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson.
She said:
Congratulations to all those students who received their results today, whether that was A-levels, AS-levels, T-levels or BTecs. For many the exams they took were the first formal exams they have ever sat and they also endured the full brunt of the pandemic on their education.
While every single student should be immensely proud of the results they have received today, there are thousands who will have missed out on the grades they hoped for.
To those students, Rishi Sunak must apologise for the 28 million days of lost learning during the pandemic and for his refusal to invest in Covid catchup programmes.
No child should be left behind or forced to miss out on a university place because of this government’s incompetence.
Head of Ofqual defends results
Sally Weale
After weeks of speculation about the scale of the drop in top grades at A-level this year, exam chiefs confirmed there were 67,000 fewer A/A* grades this year, compared with 2022, but 26,000 more than in 2019.
Jo Saxton, the chief regulator of the exams regulator in England Ofqual, defended this year’s results and the decision to bring them back roughly to 2019 levels, but expressed sympathy for students who suffered during the pandemic. She told a virtual results briefing:
You know our hearts go out to students who since 2019 have been through so much and shown so much resilience.
This has been a two-year-plan. There are no surprises here, and the changes in grading that we’re seeing are very similar to the changes that we saw last year.
And these results are above those of 2019 so these students have absolutely had the protection that they deserve, given everything they went through.
Saxton also played down the variation in results between the different nations in the UK and any impact that might have on university admissions.
There have been differences between qualifications across the devolved administrations for as long as there’s been devolution.Because we worked hand in hand with universities and employers this is well understood.
Language entries at lowest level in over a decade
Michael Goodier
Although the number of A-level entries are up overall compared with last year, some subjects have seen large drops.
Modern foreign language subjects have been particularly affected, with the total number of entries across French, Spanish and German down by 12.8% compared with last year.
Entries had held steady since 2018 and throughout the pandemic, but this year’s figures mark a record low since at least 2010.
Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, has urged students receiving A-level and T-level results to be “quick off the mark” when considering their next steps.
She said:
University is still the best thing for many but earning while you learn on high-quality and debt-free apprenticeships is an increasingly sought after option too.
Standards are so much higher now employers design them with IfATE support. Young people are clearly becoming more aware of this so it’s vital we now support them in understanding the full range of choice. There are over 670 to choose from and all are showcased on our occupational maps.
As well as all the traditional trades, they now train economists, nurses, aerospace engineers, countryside rangers, brewers, laboratory scientists, graphic designers and even archaeologists. Satisfaction rates are well over 80% and they are definitely worth serious consideration by all school leavers.
Pamela Duncan
Girls outperformed boys when it came to the very top grades in England … just. What follows is a potted history of the (sometimes chaotic) results of recent years.
In 2019, when most of us were blissfully ignorant of the word Covid we had exam-based results with boys and girls almost neck-and-neck in terms of A* and A grades (25%). It’s fair to say that 2020 was a fiasco, when the original algorithm-based results were later ditched and replaced with teacher-assessed grades. Because girls tend to do better on coursework than male students the gender gap widened to 3.1 points.
In 2021 the A-levels were teacher-assessed from the get go and the gap widened even further: 46.4%(!!!!) of girls’ grades resulted in an A* or A compared with 41.7% of boys, almost a 5-point gap.
Last year they reverted to exam-based for the first time post-pandemic, but grade boundaries were set a bit higher leading to reduced grades and closing the gap to 2.2 points.
This year we are almost back to normal and the gap is practically nonexistent. So don’t be surprised if boys outdo girls next year for the first time since 2019.
Michael Goodier
Private and grammar schools saw the largest drop in top grades compared with last year – however it hasn’t made up for the disproportionate boost in grades those types of centre had over the pandemic.
Independent school including city training colleges (CTCs) saw 47.4% of exam entries get an A or A* – down a massive 10.6 percentage points from last year. However, that’s still up 2.6 points on 2019: a larger gain than any other type of school or college over the same period.
Selective schools saw a similar trend – 39% of grades achieved A* and A: down 12 points compared with 2022, but up two points on 2019.
Meanwhile 25.4% of entries from academies achieved A* or A – up 1.4 points from 2019.
Top grades at six form colleges were up only 0.6 points compared with 2019, while free schools were up only 0.5 points. Further education colleges have lost out over the period of grade disruption – As and A*s were down 2.3 percentage points compared with 2019.
Social mobility charity warns of “growing disparity” between the most and least well off
This year’s A-level results reveal a “growing disparity” between the most and least well off, the head of a social mobility charity warned.
PA reports:
Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust and chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:
The overall picture today is one of growing disparity between the most and least well off young people. There are significant regional differences in attainment, with top grades falling most in the North East while they have increased most in London and the South East, in line with patterns of regional prosperity. Likewise, the gap in those achieving top grades has widened between those at independent and state schools.
Comparing this year’s university acceptances to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, the gap between the most and least deprived pupils has widened and is now at levels last seen a decade ago. However, it has narrowed slightly since last year.
The large increase seen in university acceptances for students eligible for free school meals is in line with the huge jump in FSM eligibility since 2019, as more and more families have fallen into poverty during the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis.
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