GCSE exam pass rates 2017 to 2022 (FOI)

Request

Please could you provide 

A

The GCSE exam results by the proportion achieving each grade, by school for the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

B

The % of students achieving 5 GCSEs A* - C (or the numerical equivalent) by school for the same years. 

C

The % of students achieving 5 GCSEs A* - C including English and Maths (or the numerical equivalent) by school for the same years. 

Response

A

Table 1 represents the GCSE exam results by the proportion achieving each grade, by school for the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. Please refer to notes below.

Information for the year 2017 is not held in this format, therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

Due to the small number of pupils represented, disclosure control has been applied to avoid identification of individuals. Any numbers below five have been suppressed, and all numbers have been rounded to the nearest five, with proportions calculated using the rounded numbers. Numbers are provided to 0 decimal places. Please note that the combined percentages by school may not equal 100 due to the controls that have been applied.  Article 25 (Personal information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Table 1.pdf

B and C

Table 2 represents a combined percentage of students achieving 5 GCSEs A* - C (or the numerical equivalent) by school for the same years and also the percentage of students achieving 5 GCSEs A* - C including English and Maths (or the numerical equivalent) by school for the same years. Please refer to notes below.

Due to the small number of pupils represented, disclosure control has been applied to avoid identification of individuals. Numbers are provided to 0 decimal places. Where numbers would be disclosive a percentage range has been provided. The range given is equivalent to fewer than 5 pupils in each cohort.  Article 25 (Personal information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Table 2.pdf

Note:

In 2020, pupils scheduled to sit GCSE exams were awarded a centre assessment grade (based on what the school or college believed the student would most likely have achieved had exams gone ahead) or their calculated grade using a model developed by Ofqual – whichever was the higher of the two.

In 2021, pupils were only assessed on the content they had been taught for each course. Schools were given flexibility to decide how to assess their pupils’ performance, for example, through mock exams, class tests, and non-exam assessments already completed. GCSE grades were then determined by teachers based on the range of evidence available and they are referred to as teacher-assessed grades, or TAGs.

In 2022, GCSE exams and formal assessments returned, with arrangements for additional support for pupils. This support included some changes to coursework to reflect public health restrictions in place at the time students were undertaking their assessments, a choice of content in some subjects, and formulae and equation sheets were provided in maths and science. Exam boards also published advance information in February which gave information about some of the topics that would be in the exams. For all subjects, there was lenient grading, reflecting a staging post between 2021 and 2019 grades.

As a result, the 2019/2020, 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 data should not be directly compared to attainment data from previous years for the purposes of measuring changes in student performance. The assessment methodologies used in Jersey for the last three academic years were the same as those used in England.

Data for 2022 is provisional. Final analysis will be completed early in 2023, once the results of any appeals have been received.

Caution should be used when making comparisons between schools based upon the attached results due to the variation in pupil characteristics across schools, and the nature of the Jersey school system.

Due to the statistical disclosure controls that have been applied, the attached results may differ slightly from those that have been published by individual schools.

The data provided includes GCSE and IGCSE only. Schools have a range of other qualifications that are equivalent to GCSE’s, but not included in the attached tables.

Articles applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

3)      In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.