The exception is the open slot of Attainment 8, in which attainment appears to be down this year. This might be an area in which we’ll see results go up when remarks and late results (and graded music qualifications) are included. But it could also reflect slightly lower attainment in reformed tech awards.
The fact that the patterns are similar to what austria rcs data we see nationally is reassuring in terms of how well these findings might reflect the national picture, although the pupils in our sample do appear to be slightly higher attaining, on average, than pupils nationally: the national average A8 for all state-funded mainstream schools last year was 47.2, while for our sample it was 47.7.
Last year, the disadvantage gap at GCSE was at its highest level since 2011. No official figures have yet been published on the gap this year, and we don’t expect them until Key Stage 4 performance data is published in the autumn.
But looking at results from our sample, it appears that the gap may have narrowed slightly this year.
The gap in the proportion of pupils achieving a strong pass in English and maths has narrowed from 26.7 percentage points to 24.0 percentage points, and the gap in Attainment 8 scores has lowered from 14.2 to 12.8.