Handy Guide to 14-19 qualification reform, 2010-2019

Subjects 

It is proposed that all current GCSE subjects will be reformed by 2017, or will be discontinued. This reform is happening across three phases:

• To be taught from 2015: Mathematics, English literature, English language.
  
  
• To be taught from 2016: Physics, chemistry, biology, combined science (double award), food preparation and nutrition, history, geography, modern and classical languages, art & design, dance, drama, music, computer science, citizenship, religious studies, PE.
  
  
• To be taught from 2017: Ancient history, astronomy, business, classical civilization, design & technology, economics, electronics, engineering, film studies, geology, media studies, psychology, sociology, statistics.
  
  
• Subjects to be discontinued: Subjects confirmed for withdrawal, last teaching from September 2015: additional applied science, catering, design and technology (food technology route only), digital communication*, expressive arts, home economics (food and nutrition route only), human health and physiology, humanities, performing arts.
  
  Subjects confirmed for withdrawal, last teaching from September 2016: additional and further additional science, applications of mathematics, applied business, applied ICT, applied science, business and communication systems, business communications, business studies and economics, environmental and land-based science, environmental science, general studies, health and social care, home economics – child development, home economics – textiles, hospitality, ICT, law, leisure and tourism, manufacturing.
  
  *Only available in 2015 for centres already delivering these qualifications

Key features

Structure: All new GCSEs will be fully linear, and most will be untiered. Of the 2015 subjects, only mathematics will be tiered.

Assessment model: Assessment will normally be by examination only, except in subjects where some non-examined assessment is the best approach, such as art & design.

Availability: Assessment will be available only in the summer, with the exception of mathematics and English language, which will have an additional assessment opportunity for students aged 16 and over in November.

Grading: The new GCSEs will be graded from 1 to 9, with 1 as the lowest grade and 9 as the highest.

Standards: Ofqual proposes to carry the standard across from the current GCSEs to the reformed qualifications by pegging the current grade C to the new grade 4, at least initially.

Subjects

All current AS and A level subjects will be reformed by 2017, or will be discontinued. This reform is happening across three phases:

• To be taught from 2015: Art and design, biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, English language, English literature, English language and literature, history, physics, psychology, sociology
  
  
• To be taught from 2016: Modern and classical languages, geography, dance, drama, music, religious studies, PE
  
  
• To be taught from 2017: Accounting, ancient history, archaeology, classical civilisation, design & technology, electronics, environmental science, film studies, further mathematics, Geology, history of art, law, mathematics, media studies, music technology, philosophy,
  politics, statistics

Subjects to be discontinued

Subjects confirmed for withdrawal, last teaching from September 2015

Applied art and design*, applied business*, economics and business*, human biology*, performance studies, performing arts.

Subjects confirmed for withdrawal, last teaching from September 2016

Anthropology, applied ICT, applied science, citizenship studies, communication and culture, creative writing, critical thinking, engineering, general studies, health and social care, home economics (food, nutrition and health), humanities, ICT, leisure studies, media: communication and production, moving image arts, pure mathematics, quantitative methods (AS), Science (AS), science in society, travel and tourism, use of mathematics (AS), world development.

*Only available in 2015 for centres already delivering these qualifications

Key features

Structure: AS and A level will be separate linear qualifications; however the content of AS can be a subset of the full A level in order to facilitate co-teachability.

The separate structure means that if a student takes an AS examination on the way to completing an A level the AS outcome will not contribute to the A level grade. The concept of ‘A2’ disappears.

Assessment model: Assessment will normally be by examination only, except in subjects where some non-examined assessment is the best approach, such as history or computing.

Availability: Assessment will be available only in the summer.

Grading: The new A and AS levels will continue to be graded from A to E, with an additional A* grade available at A level only.

Standards: The standard of AS will remain in line with current end of first year standard; the A level standard will remain in line with current A level standard.

On 8 July 2016 the Government published the report of a small group led by Lord Sainsbury which reviewed the route into employment for those aged 16 and above. It recommended that two ‘pathways’ should be established, an ‘academic’ pathway leading to higher study, and a ‘technical’ pathway leading to employment. Within the technical pathway there would be 15 routes, each encompassing a number of related occupations. Within each route there would be just one qualification for each of the occupations or cluster of occupations – typically 10-15 per route. At the same time, the Government published its Skills Plan, which accepted all the recommendations. If the whole plan goes ahead and meets its targets, the first of these new qualifications will be ready for teaching in September 2019. For more information there is a separate Handy Guide to the Sainsbury Review.

Key Stage 4

Headline measures: Up until 2015 the headline measure was the proportion of students achieving 5 GCSEs (with up to 2 vocational qualifications) at A*-C, including English and maths. From 2016 results, reporting changed to Progress 8.

Progress 8: This measure reports the progress made by students from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4. Each student’s GCSE and vocational results is compared to their KS2 performance, and the outcomes are aggregated at school level to report whether students in that school make more or less progress than average. This is presented in terms of GCSE grades – ‘students make half a grade more progress than average,’ or ‘… make a third of a grade less progress than average,’ for example.

The eight qualifications reported in this measure must conform to a formula made up of three groups:

Transition arrangements: As the reformed GCSEs are introduced, alternative qualifications (Level1/Level2 Certificates) will cease to be recognised in performance tables; results from the current GCSEs will also not be recognised in performance tables when the reformed GCSEs in those subjects become available.

16-19

Qualification categories: From 2016 results, schools and colleges will have their performance reported against up to four separate categories – academic, Applied General, Tech Level and Technical Certificates. The intention is to make reporting sharper, and a college could be rated very highly on one category yet be failing on another – under the current system good performance in one area would be offset by poorer performance in another and the college might simply be reported as doing well enough across its whole provision.

Headline measures: For each of the four qualification categories, there are five headline measures:

• Progress (academic and AG qualifications) or combined attainment and retention (Tech Level and Technical Certificates)
• Attainment
• English and mathematics GCSE (for those without at least a grade C from Key Stage 4)
• Retention
• Destinations.

Other measures: A range of other measures will be reported, the most publicised of which is probably the Tech Bacc measure. Like the EBacc, this is a measure for accountability purposes only. To meet the measure, students must achieve a Tech Level qualification, a level 3 mathematics qualification and the Extended Project. A small number of schools and colleges are
piloting it in 2014-15, but it becomes fully available in 2015-6, and will be first reported in summer 2016.

Study programmes: From September 2013 all 16-19 students in state-funded provision must be on a personalised ‘study programme’. Study programmes must be built around a ‘substantial’ qualification, and include English and/or mathematics if either has not yet been achieved at grade C, work experience and non-qualification activity such as careers advice and tutorial time.