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This guide provides you with information about this year's arrangements for qualifications regulated by Ofqual. It also explains what support is in place when taking exams and assessments.

Applies to England

Documents

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Details

This guide is for students taking any of the following qualifications:

GCSEs

AS or A levels

other general qualifications, including International Baccalaureate, core mathematics and Pre-U

Technical Qualification (part of a T Level)

BTEC, Cambridge Technicals and other vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) taken alongside GCSEs and A levels

In this guide, we refer to schools and colleges as a collective term for all schools, colleges and other exam centres.

Some students won't be studying at a school or college and will be private candidates. They are often home educated or are re-taking a qualification after leaving school or college. They may be studying with a distance learning provider, tutor, parent, or without any support. Private candidates will need to register at a school, college or other exam centre to sit their exams. More information on how to do this can be found in this guide. We make clear in this guide where information only applies to a certain type of qualification. If you are not sure exactly which qualifications you are taking, check with your school or college.

This guide talks about awarding organisations and exam boards. All organisations that offer qualifications regulated by Ofqual are called awarding organisations. The 4 awarding organisations that offer GCSEs, AS and A levels in England are also called exam boards.

This guide refers to exams officers. An exams officer is the person in a school or college that organises exams. An exams officer's duties will vary by school or college. Check with your school or college who your exams officer is and how to contact them.

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This guide provides you with information about this year's arrangements for qualifications regulated by Ofqual. It also explains what support is in place when taking exams and assessments.

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Published: 21 March 2023
This guide for students provides information about this year’s arrangements for qualifications regulated by Ofqual. It also explains what support is in place when taking exams and assessments.

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This guide provides you with information about this year's arrangements for qualifications regulated by Ofqual. It also explains what support is in place when taking exams and assessments.

Applies to England

Documents

Request an accessible format.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email publications@ofqual.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

This guide is for students taking any of the following qualifications:

GCSEs

AS or A levels

other general qualifications, including International Baccalaureate, core mathematics and Pre-U

Technical Qualification (part of a T Level)

BTEC, Cambridge Technicals and other vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) taken alongside GCSEs and A levels

In this guide, we refer to schools and colleges as a collective term for all schools, colleges and other exam centres.

Some students won't be studying at a school or college and will be private candidates. They are often home educated or are re-taking a qualification after leaving school or college. They may be studying with a distance learning provider, tutor, parent, or without any support. Private candidates will need to register at a school, college or other exam centre to sit their exams. More information on how to do this can be found in this guide. We make clear in this guide where information only applies to a certain type of qualification. If you are not sure exactly which qualifications you are taking, check with your school or college.

This guide talks about awarding organisations and exam boards. All organisations that offer qualifications regulated by Ofqual are called awarding organisations. The 4 awarding organisations that offer GCSEs, AS and A levels in England are also called exam boards.

This guide refers to exams officers. An exams officer is the person in a school or college that organises exams. An exams officer's duties will vary by school or college. Check with your school or college who your exams officer is and how to contact them.

Thank you for your feedback

Report a problem with this page

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This guide provides you with information about this year's arrangements for qualifications regulated by Ofqual. It also explains what support is in place when taking exams and assessments.

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Diocese of Norwich: RE Local Leaders Forum 

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Diocese of Norwich: RE Local Leaders Forum 

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Tuesday 13th June 2023
13:00-16:00
Diocesan House, Norwich

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Eventbrite - Diocese of Norwich - Schools & Academies presents RE Local Leaders Forum - Monday, 26 June 2023 at Diocesan House. Find event and ticket information.

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National Statistics: 2022 Alevel and other 16 to 18 results Breakdown

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National Statistics: 2022 Alevel and other 16 to 18 results Breakdown

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Updated: 2nd February 2023

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Last updated

Release type

National statistics ?

This academic year saw the return of the summer exam series, after they had been cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, where alternative processes were set up to award grades. As part of the transition back to the summer exam series adaptations were made to the exams (including advance information) and the approach to grading for 2022 exams broadly reflected a midpoint between results in 2019 and 2021.

The 16 to 18 performance measures reported in this revised release for the 2021/22 academic year, and to be included on the Find School and College Performance Data website, have been affected by our commitment not to include results from qualifications awarded between January 2020 and August 2021 (see section 'Changes to the data in 2021/22').

Throughout this release, comparisons are made with both 2021, the most recent year, and 2019, because it is most meaningful to compare to the last year summer exams were sat. Given the unprecedented change in how A level and vocational and VTQ grades were awarded in 2020 and 2021, as well as changes to the grade boundaries and methods of assessment for 2021/22, users need to exercise caution when considering comparisons over time, as they may not reflect changes in student performance alone.

Related information

Releases in this series

View releases (23)

Methodologies

Headline facts and figures - 2021/22

A level retention

95.1%

An increase of 3.8 ppts from 2018/19

What is this?

This is the headline retention rate for A level programmes. (The percentage of students who completed their A level programme).

Applied general retention

91.7%

An increase of 5.1 ppts from 2018/19

What is this?

This is the headline retention rate for applied general programmes. (The percentage of students who completed their applied general programme).

Tech level retention

91.1%

An increase of 3.2 ppts from 2018/19

What is this?

This is the headline retention rate for tech level programmes. (The percentage of students who completed their tech level programme).

Average Point Score (APS) per entry for all level 3 cohorts is lower compared to 2020/21: A level, -2.8 pts; applied general, -0.7 pts; tech level, - 1.1 pts. However, attainment remains higher compared to 2018/19: A level, +4.9pts; applied general, +3.1 pts; tech level +1.9 pts. [An increase of 10 points is equivalent to an increase in one full grade]. This follows Ofqual's announcement in September 2021 that 2022 will be a transition year where the aim was for exam results to broadly reflect a midway point between 2021 (TAG grades) and 2019 (the last year all students sat exams).

The trend for falling average attainment across level 3 cohorts in 2021/22 compared to 2020/21 was observed across institution types generally (when grouped into state-funded schools, independent schools, sixth form colleges, and 'Other FE sector colleges') with the exception of applied general attainment in sixth form colleges and independent schools which increased in 2021/22 (+ 0.2 pts and + 0.8 pts respectively).

The disadvantage gap (between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students) is at its widest level for all Level 3 cohorts (A level, tech level, and applied general) since disadvantage measures began in 2016/17.

Gender gaps in favour of female students in average attainment at A level, applied general, and tech level have narrowed in 2021/22 compared to 2020/21; average attainment had increased more for female students than males with the alternative Centre Assessment Grade (CAG) and Teacher Assessed Grade (TAG) awarding processes in 2019/20 and 2020/21 compared with 2018/19.

The percentage of students who completed their main or 'core' aim from their study programme, known as the Retention rate, increased across all programmes in 2021/22.

Non-disadvantaged students are more likely to be retained than disadvantaged students, across all cohorts.

Students with higher prior attainment are more likely to be retained than students with lower prior attainment, across all level 3 cohorts.

Given the unprecedented change in the way results were awarded in the summers of 2020 and 2021, as well as the changes to methods of assessment for 2021/22, users need to exercise caution when considering comparisons over time, as they may not reflect changes in pupil performance alone.

The changes seen in the headline statistics likely reflect the changes in methodology for awarding grades and in calculating the measures, rather than demonstrating a difference in standards.

Explore data and files used in this release

View tables that we have built for you, or create your own tables from open data using our table tool

Browse and download open data files from this release in our data catalogue

Learn more about the data files used in this release using our online guidance

Download all data available in this release as a compressed ZIP file

All supporting files from this release are listed for individual download below:

Provisional results (November 2022) for A level and other 16 to 18 results 2021-22

Transition matrices data used for visualising the progress of pupils aged 16 to 18 from key stage 4 (KS4) to key stage 5 (KS5).

Instructions to accompany the transition matrices data

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer exam series was cancelled in both 2020 and 2021, and alternative processes set up to award grades. Throughout this release, comparisons are made with both 2021, the most recent year, and 2019, because it is most meaningful to compare to the last year summer exams were sat.

A/AS and vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs)

In summer 2021 students were awarded A/AS grades based on an assessment by their teachers using a range of available evidence. Students were only assessed on the content they had been taught. In 2021 some VTQ grades were decided using teacher-assessed grades, others using normal assessment routes, and some through adapted assessment such as remote invigilation.

Exceptionally in autumn 2020 and 2021 an autumn series was put in place to allow students the opportunity to try to improve their A level or AS grade from the summer, if they wished to do so. Further information on the autumn 2021 series is available at this link:
https://ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2021/12/16/as-and-a-level-results-in-the-autumn-2021-series/
A/AS exams returned in 2022 and adaptations were made to exams (including advance information), and the approach to grading for 2022 exams broadly reflected a midpoint between results in 2019 and 2021.

The diversity of vocational qualifications meant that Ofqual did not prescribe a single approach to adaptations, so Awarding Organisations (AOs) had flexibility to choose how to adapt their assessments. However, Ofqual's regulatory framework requires AOs as far as possible to ensure VTQ learners were not disadvantaged nor advantaged compared with their A level peers when setting standards.

For further information on the process to award grades in 2021 and 2022 see the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/awarding-qualifications-in-summer-2021/awarding-qualifications-in-summer-2021 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/guidance-for-centres-awarding-vtqs-in-2021-and-2022
Reporting of 2022 results by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and Ofqual

As happens every year on A level results day (18 August for summer 2022 results) JCQ published data on A level entries for qualifications awarded in summer 2022, and for each subject the distribution of grades awarded (with data for the previous summer for reference): https://www.jcq.org.uk/examination-results/

The data published by JCQ can be expected to show the same broad patterns as the underlying data published in this statistical release 'Entries and results - A level and AS by subject and student characteristics (single academic year). However, the coverage of the data is different: JCQ data covers all A level entries in the UK by people of all ages. Data in this statistical release covers exam entries by 16 to 18 year olds in schools and colleges in England, and includes breakdowns by a wide range of student characteristics.

In addition, Ofqual also routinely publish data on results day: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guide-to-as-and-a-level-results-in-england-summer-2022

Data excluded from 2021/22 measures due to alternative assessment arrangements in 2020 and 2021

We have committed not to include results of qualifications achieved between January 2020 and August 2021 in school and college performance measures on Find Schools and College Performance Data website, given the alternative assessment arrangements used to award those grades.

For consistency, when calculating 16 to 18 performance measures for 2021/22 in this statistical release, data will only include entries and grades from qualifications awarded in the 2021/22 academic year, with the exception of AS and A level qualifications taken as part of the extraordinary autumn 2021 examination series which are also excluded.

However, results from qualifications routinely offered in the autumn of 2021 that would usually be approved for reporting, such as vocational and technical qualifications taken in autumn 2021, will be included even if some of the VTQ constituent unit-level grades were awarded between January 2020 and August 2021 via Centre Assessment Grade, Teacher Assessed Grade, or another process.

The table below shows the impact at national level of excluding these data, by comparing the number of students and headline attainment measures for each cohort.

The impact on A level student numbers is modest. It is greater for students entering vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs), who are more likely to enter qualifications over multiple years. It should be noted that students may have results from multiple years including 2021/22. In this case the student is included in this data but some of their results are excluded.

The technical certificate cohort has been substantially impacted by this change, as students are often not triggered for reporting in the same year as they complete the qualification.

Smaller cohorts in 2021/22, do not necessarily translate into impacts on attainment. Nationally, the impact on A level Average Point Score (APS) is minimal (1/200th of a grade) with slightly larger changes for the level 3 vocational and technical qualifications.

Impact of the change

Number of students
-2% -10% -15% -84%

APS
+0.06 +0.60 +0.72 +0.12

Other changes for the 2021/22 release

English and maths progress measures will not be published in this statistical release until these measures return to Find school and college performance data website (likely 2024/25, as set out in 16 to 18 accountability headline measures: technical guide, due to the impact of excluding CAG/TAG grades on this performance measure).

Similarly, 16 to 18 value-added measures, which would rely on KS4 prior attainment including some data from summer 2020, continue not to be published in 2021/22. Value-added measures will return as soon as possible, which will be for the 2023/24 academic year at the earliest; further details are included in the technical guide.

Breakdowns of performance measures by prior attainment, usually published in spring with the Retention update have been brought forward to the provisional release along with other breakdowns by student characteristics. Note, we distinguish between the use of prior attainment data nationally to breakdown measures by student characteristics in this statistical release and their use to calculate performance measures that will be published for individual schools and colleges on Find School and College Performance Data.

SEN Provision contains additional breakdowns by SEN types for the first time in national level data at 16 to 18.

Additional 'bivariate' data giving a breakdown of headline attainment and disadvantage status in combination with other characteristics are available for the first time.

Changes continuing from the 2020/21 release

Characteristic breakdowns usually published in the revised update have been brought forward to the provisional release. This is a permanent change.

The rules for determining when students reach the end of their 16-18 study changed in 2020/21 and students can no longer be triggered solely due to spending two years in the same school or college. The impact of this change on 2020/21 data was to reduce the number of students in each cohort, with vocational and technical qualifications impacted most. In 2021/22, student numbers returned to pre-rule change levels, as expected.

Full details of the trigger change are set out in the section 'Changes introduced in the 2020/21 release' in the Quality and Methodology documentation.

Checking exercise and other amendments

This updated release is based on revised data. Since the release of provisional data in November, amendments to the data have been made. These include the addition of 'late' results from some Awarding Organisations, and changes made by schools and colleges through a 'checking exercise'.

The checking exercise takes place in the autumn term and gives schools and colleges the opportunity to amend their data. Some students are removed from a school or colleges results, for example because the student wasn't on roll or has not yet completed 16-18 study. Some students are added where they are flagged by a school or college as having completed 16-18 study despite not being triggered. Changes need to be approved to be included in revised data.

The 2021/22 academic year saw the return of the school and college checking exercise, after it was suspended in the two previous years. In this release data for 2019/20 and 2020/21 is labelled as 'final' data. This is provisional data adjusted for results from the autumn series for AS and A levels. (The autumn series gave students an opportunity to sit an exam if they were unhappy with the grade awarded to them through the alternative process). Data from 2019/20 and 2020/21 did not go through a checking exercise; schools and colleges did not have an opportunity to amend their data as described above.

The table shows the size of the change between provisional and revised/final data. Generally, the change in the numbers of students included in the data in 2021/22 is relatively small in terms of the overall cohort size, the exception being technical certificates where there are 655 more students in the revised release than the provisional (an increase of 87%). This increase is predominantly due to results being reported late by Awarding Organisations.

The size of the change between provisional and revised data is generally smaller in 2021/22 than in 2017/18 and 2018/19. Changes to the trigger rule were introduced to reduce the burden on schools and colleges. This gives an indication that the change is working as intended.

Change in the numbers of students between the provisional and revised/final data:

Cohort

Report year

2017/18

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

The table below shows the size of the change in the average point score between the provisional and the revised release. The changes are minimal. A change of 0.1 pts at A level / applied general / tech level is equivalent to 1/100th of a grade.

Change in Average Point Score (APS) per entry between the provisional and revised/final data.

Report year

2017/18

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

Unless stated otherwise statistics reported here refer to 16 to 18 year olds in England:

who reached the end of their 16 to 18 study in 2021/22. Students typically spend either two or three years in the 16 to 18 phase. (Usually, attainment includes results from qualifications entered during all those years. However, this year, attainment excludes results from qualifications that were awarded between January 2020 and August 2021).

who entered qualifications approved for reporting in 2022 school and college performance tables, set out in the 16 to 18 qualifications, discount codes and point scores guidance.

Qualifications are grouped into A level (subset of Academic), Applied General, and Tech Level exam cohorts at level 3, and Technical Certificates at level 2. Students can be reported in more than one exam cohort.

Student numbers by cohort

Students are included in this statistical release when they reach the end of their 16 to 18 study in schools and colleges in England. As set out in the Methodology guidance, the rules for determining when that happens changed in 2020/21, and students are no longer automatically triggered for reporting after spending two years in the same school or college.

The impact of the trigger change in 2020/21 was to reduce the number of students in each cohort, with vocational and technical qualifications impacted most. As expected, student numbers have generally returned to their pre-rule change level in 2021/22, with student numbers in all level 3 cohorts being higher than in 2019/20 and 2020/21.

Results for qualifications awarded between January 2020 and August 2021 have been excluded from the data. The technical certificate cohort has been substantially impacted by this change, as students are often not triggered for reporting until they turn 18, often a year or two after they complete the qualification. More detail is provided in the section 'Changes to the data in 2021/22', where in particular excluding CAG and TAG grades reduced reported technical certificate student numbers by 84%.

The growth in the number of students entered for applied general and tech level qualifications in 2021/22 approved for reporting in performance measures reflects the removal of funding approval from 1 August 2020 for pre-existing qualifications which were running in parallel with newer redeveloped qualifications. Prior to that numbers had been increasing more slowly following big falls in 2017/18 when qualifications were reformed. The number of students in the A level cohort, which includes students who only enter AS levels, has increased after several years of decline. (The previous decline reflected fewer AS level entries following the now completed A level reform to decouple A and AS levels.)

The overall growth in student numbers may also be partly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some students reported here completed their pre-16 study in 2019/20 where higher grades were awarded via Centre Assessment Grades. These higher grades resulted in greater numbers of students applying for post-16 places and may have shifted some students away from level two technical certificates and into level 3 qualifications. There were also fewer alternative options available for these students in terms of apprenticeships and other employment opportunities ( Key stage 4 destination measures showed that a smaller proportion of students who completed key stage 4 in 2019/20 progressed to sustained apprenticeship or employment outcomes in 2020/21).

Disadvantage

Disadvantaged students are all students who were in receipt of pupil premium when they were in their last year of KS4.

Disadvantage measures do not include students who were not reported at the end of KS4 - for example, because they came from overseas. Students who were known to be at independent schools in their last year of KS4 are treated as non-disadvantaged.

Disadvantage measures cover students in state-funded schools or colleges.

23.6% of state-funded students, at the end of 16 to 18 study, were recorded as having disadvantaged status in 2021/22. The percentage of students examined in level 3 vocational and technical qualifications was generally in line with this. (Applied general 23.0% and tech level 23.0%). Disadvantages students were overrepresented at technical certificate with 32.4% of the cohort identified as having disadvantaged status. Disadvantaged students were underrepresented at A level with 14.3% of the cohort identified as having disadvantaged status.

Prior attainment

Prior attainment is a measure of the average points attained per qualification at Key Stage 4. Simple discounting rules apply, with the best result in any subject used when calculating the average point score at KS4. Any GCSE resits or additional qualifications gained during 16 to 18 are ignored. For the vast majority, prior attainment is between 0-9 reflecting the range of possible grades at GCSE (where 9 is the highest grade).

[Note, whilst results from January 2020 to August 2021 are removed from calculation of performance measures, for the purposes of this statistical release they will be retained when calculating a student's prior attainment to explain outcomes in performance measures, in the same way that outcomes nationally are broken down by gender, disadvantage, etc].

In 2021/22, 18.4% of students at the end of their 16 to 18 study had the highest prior attainment (grade 7+). The large majority of students with the highest prior attainment choose to study at least one A/AS level (94.8%). High attainers now make up 36.2% of the A level cohort compared to 4.7% of the applied general and 3.7% of the tech level cohort. The proportion of students with the highest prior attainment has increased year on year for each cohort since 2019/20 (from when KS4 prior attainment has been calculated in this release).

27.5% of students at the end of 16 to 18 study in 2021/22 had the lowest prior attainment (from grade 0 up to grade 4). The proportion of students with the lowest prior attainment has decreased year on year for each exam cohort since 2019/20.

This change in the distribution of prior attainment for exam cohorts, will in part reflect year on year grade increases at KS4 and in part reflect that the majority of students at the end of 16-18 study in 2021/22 will have completed KS4 in 2019/20, and whose GCSE prior attainment will include Centre Assessment Grades (CAG).

Summary

These figures give the average points and average result that students achieved throughout their 16 to 18 study. Results awarded between January 2020 and August 2021 have been excluded from this data. (See the section 'Changes to the data in 2021/22). While the majority of results come from the student's final year of study (in particular for A levels), a small number of results awarded prior to January 2020 are included.

Points are given to all qualifications so we can compare qualifications of different size and grading structures. A maximum of 60 points are available for A level, 50 points for applied general and tech level and 8 points for technical certificates. More information on points, APS bands and grade boundaries can be found in the technical guide for 16 to 18 accountability measures (from page 27).

In September 2021 Ofqual announced that 2022 will be a transition year where the aim was for exam results to broadly reflect a midway point between 2021 and 2019. Consequently, the average results are lower in 2021/22 across all level 3 cohorts than in 2020/21.

A level programmes have seen the largest decrease (2.8 pts, compared to 0.7 pts for applied general and 1.1 pts for tech level). This is as expected due to the larger increases seen in A level grades between 2018/19 and 2020/21 relative to the vocational and technical qualifications. Technical certificates have seen a small increase (0.2 pts) in the average points score. However, interpretation of this increase is undermined by a 58% drop in cohort numbers. Given that 84% of technical certificate students have been excluded form the data (see 'Changes to the data in 2021/22'), technical certificate results will not be discussed in the breakdowns, however the data is available in the table builder tool.

For all Level 3 cohorts, the average result remains the same as in 2020/21.

At A level, the South East, London and East of England tend to do better, being on or near the top in the last 3 years. These same regions have ranked in the bottom 4 for applied general in the same time period.

The North West is in the top half of the table for both A level and applied general, although the region dipped in both exam cohorts in 2020/21 when teacher assessed grades were used.

The East Midlands is in the bottom half of the table for both A level and applied general. The region attained the lowest A level results this year.

Regional rankings are more variable for tech levels (which may be attributable to the smaller total number of tech level entries).

Average results by disadvantage status

The 2021/22 disadvantage gap has increased in comparison to last year for the A level cohort and has remained stable for applied general and tech level cohorts. For the level 3 exam cohorts, the average point score has decreased for both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students, however for A level students, the decrease was larger for disadvantaged students.

The disadvantage gap for Level 3 cohorts is at its widest point since the measure was introduced in 2016/17. (NB, this statistical release contains data for the last 5 years back to 2017/18, but disadvantage data was first published based on 2016/17 revised data).

To get a fuller picture on the impact of disadvantage status, this data should be looked at in conjunction with data on retention rates (the percentage of students who have completed their main study programme at a provider). In 2020/21, 94.3% of non-disadvantaged A level students were retained and assessed compared to 88.5% of disadvantaged students. Students are only included in the average point score measure if they are entered for examination i.e. if they are retained and assessed. More information on 2020/21 retention can be found in the 2020/21 version of this statistical release. An update to this statistical release with 2021/22 retention figures will be released on 30th March 2023.

Average results by gender

For the level 3 exam cohorts, both female and male students saw a drop in average attainment in 2021/22 when compared to 2020/21. The decrease was larger for female students than male students, which has resulted in a narrowing of the gender gap compared to last year.

When compared to 2018/19, the gender gap is slightly wider for A level students, but slightly narrower for applied general students in 2021/22. For tech level students the gender gap has reversed such that in 2018/19 it was in favour of male students, but since 2020/21 it has been in favour of female students.

The gender gap for the percentage of students achieving at least 2 A levels has been continuously decreasing for the past 5 years, falling from 5.2 ppts in 2017/18 to 0.9 ppts in 2021/22 in favour of female students.

Average results by ethnicity

Of the major ethnicity groups, Black or Black British students attained the lowest average result across all level 3 cohorts in 2021/22. At A level, Black or Black British students' attainment was almost a full grade lower than that of Chinese students. The rank order of attainment by ethnicity has remained almost unchanged at A level through the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes to the grading processes.

Prior attainment

Typically, the higher the average KS4 prior attainment, the higher the average outcome at the end of 16 to 18 study, regardless of the programme of study.

The attainment gap between students with the highest and lowest prior attainment has remained stable throughout different grading processes since 2019/20 (when this prior attainment data is available). The attainment gap at A level is around 25 pts (or 2.5 grades) and at applied general and tech level is around 19 pts (or just under 2 grades).

Average results for other student characteristics

Breakdowns of other student characteristics, including SEN provision, first language and more, are available in the featured tables and create your own tables sections of this statistical release.

This year we have introduced a new data file to this statistical release called 'Attainment and other performance measures - student characteristics and disadvantage status'. This data file gives more detail about disadvantaged students by breaking down the disadvantaged status of students by other student characteristics. In breaking down the data in this way we hope to be able to better identify how student characteristics interact. The following sections show some illustrative analyses.

Disadvantage and prior attainment

The distribution of disadvantaged students is uneven across the prior attainment bands. At A level, 9.3% of students in state-funded institutions with the highest prior attainment (grade 7+) have disadvantaged status, while 27.8% with prior attainment from grade 0 up to grade 4 have disadvantaged status.

At A level the disadvantage gap for students with the lowest prior attainment was 1.3 pts in 2021/22 or just over 1/10th of a grade. The gap increased to 2.8 pts for A level students with prior attainment from grade 4 up to grade 7 and 3.5 pts (or just over 1/3 of a grade) for students with the highest prior attainment.

The increase in the overall A level disadvantage gap was driven by the increase in the disadvantage gap for students with the highest prior attainment. (Up 0.9 pts from 2.7 pts in 2020/21). There was a small increase for those with prior attainment of grade 4 up to grade 7 (up 0.2 pts from 2.6 pts) and the gap stayed steady for those with prior attainment of grade 0 up to grade 4.

Disadvantage and other student characteristics

Across level 3 exam cohorts, non-disadvantaged students with English as their first language obtained higher average results than students with a first language other than English. However, the reverse is true for disadvantaged students. Here students with a first language other than English achieved higher average results.

Disadvantaged Black or Black British students attained the lowest average results in 2021/22 of any ethnicity across level 3 cohorts. Non-disadvantaged Black or Black British students also attained lower average results than their non-disadvantaged peers. White students had the biggest disadvantage gaps (of students with known ethnicity) across level 3 cohorts.

The disadvantage gap remains greater for female students in all level 3 cohorts, as it has since 2019/20.

Summary

Data in this section covers A level entries and results for all students aged 16-18 at the start of the respective year. Students don't need to be triggered for inclusion in this data, so it is not impacted by the change in the 'trigger' rules, introduced in 2020/21, that determined when a student had reached the end of 16-18 study. It is also not impacted by removing CAG and TAG grades from data for 2021/22.

The chart below shows the distribution of A level grades for students aged 16 to 18 for each academic year. Overall, the proportion of entries achieving top grades (between A* and B) has decreased in comparison to 2020/21 but remains higher than 2018/19.

In 2021/22, 14.8% of awarded grades were at A*. This is an increase of 6.9ppts from 2018/19, but a decrease of 4.3ppts from 2020/21. The percentage of entries achieving A*-A grades is now 36.4%, which similarly corresponds to an increase of 10.6ppts compared to 2018/19 but a decrease of 7.9ppts from 2020/21. As previously noted however, year on year comparisons cannot be interpreted as students achieving at a higher standard. Where achievement gaps alter in 2019/20 and 2020/21 compared to previous years, it might reflect the different process by which grades were awarded across these years.

A level results by gender

Overall, in 2021/22 both male and female students were more likely to be awarded the higher A level grades (A*/A/B) than in 2018/19 but less likely than in 2020/21.

Across the top A* and A*-A grades the gender gap has decreased in comparison to 2020/21. Female students continue to be more likely to achieve these grades, which has been the trend for the last three years (since 2019/20) when a reversal of the gender gap was observed.

At A*-B the gap between female and male student achievement had been continuously increasing since 2017/18, however this year the gender gap has reduced from 6.9ppts in 2020/21 to 4.7ppts.

Data is this section covers A level entries and results for all students aged 16 to 18 at the start of respective year. Students don't need to be triggered for inclusion in this data, so it is not impacted by the change in the 'trigger' rules, introduced in 2020/21, that determined when a student had reached the end of 16 to 18 study. It is also not impacted by removing CAG and TAG grades from data for 2021/22.

STEM subjects here are defined as: biology, chemistry, physics, maths, further maths, and computing.

A level grades in STEM subjects

For 2021/22, the proportion of students achieving top grades (A*, A*-A, A*-B) in STEM subjects compared to 2020/21 has fallen. At A*, the largest decrease was in further maths (8.4ppts) and the smallest decrease was in physics (4.7ppts).

The STEM subjects have generally seen large increases in the proportion of students achieving top grades when compared to 2018/19. The largest increase at A* was further maths rising by 15.7ppts, and the smallest increase was in biology at 6.3ppts. The A*-A grade boundary also observed large increases in the proportion of entries achieving these grades, ranging from computer science (17.1ppts increase) to maths (6.6ppts increase).

This section replaces one that usually describes outcomes in the English and maths progress accountability measures. These are not being created in 2021/22 in Find School and College Performance Data due to the impact of excluding CAG and TAG grades on this measure (set out in more detail in the 16 to 18 accountability measures: technical guide).

These alternative data have been published as part of this statistical release since 2015/16. Coverage is all entries and outcomes in below level 3 English and maths qualifications for students aged 16 to 18 at the start of the respective year. Unlike data based on students at the end of 16-18 study, it means these data are not impacted by the trigger change in 2020/21, and not impacted by removing CAG and TAG grades from data for 2021/22.

It also means a student here can be reported in successive years, for example at age 16 in 2019/20, at age 17 in 2020/21, and at age 18 in 2021/22 if they entered exams in each year.

The tables below focus on GCSEs, and Functional Skills qualifications at level 2, level 1 and Entry level which make up the large majority of English and maths qualifications entered below level 3 (though outcomes for Other level 2, level 1, and Entry Level qualifications are available via the 'Explore data and files' section).

Fewer students are entering below level 3 maths and English qualifications

Most students aged 16 to 18 enter below level 3 English and maths qualifications because they did not achieve a GCSE pass at grade 9-4 or equivalent during key stage 4, and so are required to continue to study those subjects under Condition of Funding rules (CoF).

The overall fall observed in the number of below level 3 entries across both English and maths in GCSEs and Functional Skills is consistent with data published in Key Stage 4 performance showing an increasing proportion of pupils achieving grades 4 or above in English and maths GCSE during key stage 4 ( increasing from 59.8% in 2018/19 to 67.1% in 2020/21 in provisional data) - and so not being required to study below level 3 English or maths during the 16-18 phase.

An additional factor explaining the big fall in entries at GCSE from 2019/20 to 2021/22 (-27% English, -12% maths) is the higher proportion of GCSE entries in 2019/20 and 2020/21 during the 16-18 phase that resulted in a grade 9-4 pass, when grades were awarded through the CAG and TAG processes, because once a student achieves a 9-4 GCSE pass during 16-18 they no longer have to continue studying English and/or maths the following year.

Achievement of Level 2 English and maths through GCSE and Functional Skills qualifications

Many more age 16-18 students enter GCSEs (a level 1/level 2 qualification) than are entered for Functional skills (distinct qualifications at level 2, level 1 and Entry level).

Overall pass rates are broadly comparable at GCSE and L1 and L2 Functional skills. Given that the prior attainment distributions are similar at GCSE and level 2 functional skills (see table below), we might have expected to see a higher level 2 pass rate (grades 9-4) at GCSE. Although it is difficult to make direct comparisons due to range of grades available within the GCSE qualification.

Qualification KS4 Prior Attainment English entries in 2021/22 Proportion of English entries at prior attainment band maths entries in 2021/22 Proportion of maths entries at prior attainment band

All level 1 and level 2 qualifications have had decreases in their pass rates in 2021/22. Mathematics qualifications have seen much larger decreases than English across all qualifications.

Maths L2 functional skills decreased by 20.8 ppts to 63.6% (12.0 ppts fall in English to 81.0%). Maths L1 functional skills decreased by 10.2 ppts to 85.4% (English fall, 3.3ppts to 94.0%). For maths GCSE the overall pass rate (grade 9-1) decreased by 5.8ppts to 84.9% (English decreased by 3.7 ppts to 85.8%) and the level 2 pass rate (grade 9-4) also decreased 16.7ppts to 15.3% for Maths and 13.9ppts to 25.7% for English

In contrast, at KS4 the English language GCSE level 2 pass rate (grade 9-4) fell by more than maths. English language fell by 4.0 ppts and maths by 3.1ppts between 2020/21 and 2021/22 (provisional data).

Pass rates in English and maths at level 2 by institution type

GCSE entries by students at independent schools are most likely to pass at level 2, but it should be noted that Condition of Funding rules are not relevant for these schools, and these students may be resitting GCSEs to improve their KS4 grade, which could have already been at grade 4 or above. Amongst state-funded institutions, students in schools are consistently most likely to pass GCSE at level 2, then sixth form colleges and other FE sector colleges in both English and maths in 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Level 2 Functional Skills entries: within state-funded institutions sixth form colleges and 'Other FE sector' colleges are consistently more likely to pass than schools. Most entries in L2 Functional Skills are in 'Other FE sector' colleges.

Applied general, tech level, and technical certificate qualifications approved for reporting in this statistical release (and institution level performance data) are updated annually and published on gov.uk:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/performance-tables-technical-and-vocational-qualifications
The concept of qualifications approved for reporting has been applied since 2015/16 following Professor Alison Wolf's Review of Vocational Education. From 2017/18 at level 3 and from 2018/19 for technical certificates, the quality threshold for vocational and technical qualifications to be included in performance measures further increased. The later reforms include criteria relating to the size, content, and assessment, including a requirement that a proportion of a qualification's content is subject to external assessment. From 1 August 2020 the ESFA removed funding approval for pre-existing applied general and tech level qualifications (which had been approved in 2015/16 and 2016/17) which were running in parallel with newer redeveloped qualifications.

The measures presented in this section show the students entering these approved qualifications as a proportion of students entering a wider set of vocational qualifications that had been approved by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) for funding during 16 to 18 study.

Proportions entering approved tech level and applied general qualifications continue to increase following a large fall in 2017/18 (when both lists of approved qualifications changed substantially), with a jump in students entering reformed versions of qualifications in 21/22 (in part attributable to the defunding of unreformed pre-existing qualifications).

The coverage of the measure for technical certificates is strongly impacted by the removal of CAG and TAG data from 2021/22 accountability data (as coverage is students at the end of 16-18 study, and level 2 vocational qualifications are more often entered during a student's first year of 16-18 study and so are excluded from the calculation).

The following table shows that there is variation in whether different institution types enter students for qualifications approved for reporting in performance tables versus the wider set of qualifications that were approved for funding.

Overall students in state-funded schools continue to be most likely to enter reformed versions of vocational and technical qualifications at level 3 (reformed in 2017/18), but 2021/22 saw a marked increase in the proportion of students entering approved/reformed applied general and tech levels across all broad institution types.

Introduction to retention measures

The Retention measure shows the percentage of students who are retained to the end of the 'core aim' (or main learning aim) of their study programme at a school or college.

Students are counted as retained if they are recorded as having "completed the learning activities leading to the learning aim" by their institution. This information is collected in the school census or for students that attended sixth form or FE colleges, the Individualised Learner Record (ILR).

Retention measures are not calculated for independent schools or special schools (both independent and maintained) as learning aims data is not available for these schools.

The Retention measure is calculated by dividing the total number of students retained by the total number of students with a core aim, in each of the five programmes approved for reporting in performance tables: academic, A level, applied general, tech level, and at level 2, technical certificate programmes.

Since academic programmes comprise largely of A levels, only data for A level core aims are described here; overall data for academic programmes can be found in the 'create your own tables' section and in the underlying data available to download.

Alongside the headline Retention measure there are two supporting retention measures:

Retained and Assessed: The percentage of students who are retained to the end of their course and are assessed.

Returned and Retained for a second year: The percentage of level 3 students who return to the same provider and complete their programme of study in their second year. (The main difference when compared to Retention is for students who complete their core aim in one year.)

A fuller description of the methodology underlying retention measures can be found in the 16-18 technical guide (from page 41).

Retention measures and the impact of the trigger change in 2020/21

The impact of the trigger rule change, meaning that students were no longer automatically reported after two years in 16-18 study, was to reduce the reported number of students in scope for retention measures across all exam cohorts in 2020/21, with the biggest impact on vocational and technical cohorts (VTQs).

For retention measures, this meant that Retention rates were slightly increased in 2020/21 for level 3 cohorts (A level, applied general, tech level) than would have been seen otherwise. However, the impact on the level 2 technical certificate cohort was a large decrease in Retention rates (and in cohort size).

Fuller analysis on the impact on 2020/21 retention data can be found in the methodology document, in the section 'Changes introduced in the 2020/21 release', under the heading 'Impact of the trigger change on headline retention rates'.

Students whose reporting was delayed for one year due to the 2020/21 trigger change are reported in 2021/22. In other words, the impact of the trigger change was one-off discontinuity in retention data for 2020/21. For this reason, when looking at trends, data for 2021/22 is better compared to data for 2019/20 and earlier years.

All level 3 study programmes show increases in Retention rates in 2021/22 (A level +0.1 pts to 95.1%; applied general +1.8 pts to 91.7%; tech level +0.5 ppts to 91.1%). This continues a trend of increasing Retention rates since 2018/19. A level programmes continue to have the highest Retention rate as has been the case since the measure was introduced in 2015/16, but for the first time applied general programmes have a higher Retention rate than tech levels programmes.

Technical certificates have had lower Retention rates than Level 3 cohorts since being added to performance measures in 2016/17. However, they have seen an increase in Retention rate this year (+4.5 ppts to 86.6%), recovering from the impact of the trigger change that was seen last year and returning to previously-seen levels.

For the A level and applied general cohorts, rates for the Retained and Assessed measure have increasingly followed the same general trend as the Retention rate in recent years. Similarly, the Returned and Retained measure now also follows the same trend. This is most notable for the A level cohort where the phased decoupling of AS and A levels predominantly between 2017 and 2019 has resulted in a much smaller proportion of the A level cohort taking AS levels only and not then returning for a second year of study.

The tech level cohort shows a slightly different pattern this year whereby the Retained and Assessed rate has dropped slightly despite increases in both the Retained rate (retention to the end of the course) and the Returned and Retained rate (retention specifically over two years of a course). This means that within this cohort there was an increase in the proportion of students not being assessed at the end of their course .

The much smaller technical certificate cohort (Level 2) was heavily impacted by the trigger change in 2020/21 and shows less stable trends. In addition, the low cohort numbers mean that breakdowns of the technical certificate data, by student characteristics become increasingly unreliable, and therefore this cohort isn't discussed further.

Due to the similarity in the trends shown by the three retention measures, in particular for the two largest cohorts (A level and applied general), our further narrative will focus on the Retained and Assessed measure. Further breakdowns of the Retention measure and the Returned and Retained measure across all qualification cohorts are available in underlying data and through the table builder.

The Retained and Assessed rate is higher for non-disadvantaged students across all level 3 cohorts. Disadvantaged tech level students are least likely to be Retained and Assessed at 79.1%, which is 7.1 ppts lower than their non-disadvantaged peers. The Retained and Assessed disadvantage gap is smaller for A level and applied general (5.6 ppts and 5.3 ppts respectively).

The disadvantage gap has been narrowing for the A level cohort since 2018/19 (from 8.4 ppts to 5.6 ppts). Similarly, the applied general cohort has, overall, seen a substantial decrease in the gap in that time (from 7.9 ppts to 5.6 ppts). In contrast, the tech level cohort did not consolidate an initial decrease in the gap in 2019/20 and is now only slightly smaller than in 2018/19 (from 7.6 ppts to 7.1 ppts).

Changes to the distribution of prior attainment at A level between 2017/18 and 2021/22

The coverage of the retention measures is different to the attainment measures, and is described above in 'Retention: introduction and changes to the data in 2021/22'. The largest difference is that independent schools are excluded from the data, and this impacts the distribution of the prior attainment groups as students from independent schools have higher prior attainment on average.

The distribution of prior attainment has changed over time for all cohorts. The proportion of A level students with low prior attainment (from grade 0 up to grade 4) has decreased from 8.1% of the cohort in 2017/18 to 1.9% in 2021/22. High prior attaining students (average grade 7 or more) have increased their proportion of the cohort from 16.1% in 2017/18 to 35.3% in 2021/22.

This increase in the proportion of KS4 students achieving grades averaging 7 or more, in part reflects year on year grade increases at KS4, and in part reflects that most A level students at the end of 16-18 study in 2021/22 will have completed KS4 in 2019/20, and so their GCSE prior attainment will include Centre Assessment Grades (CAG).

However, in the vocational and technical cohorts, a larger proportion of students are being reported after three years in 16-18, hence prior attainment for these cohorts is less affected by CAGs. This is following delay in their reporting last year due to the change in the rule in 2020/21 triggering students for reporting.

Overall, students with the highest average prior attainment (grade 7+) are most likely to be Retained and Assessed in their main programme of study and students with the lowest prior attainment (grade 0 up to grade 4) the least likely to be Retained and Assessed. The highest Retained and Assessed rate is for high prior attaining A level students at 98.7%. The lowest Retained and Assessed rate is also for A level students. Low prior attaining A level students have a Retained and Assessed rate of 66.0%.

The Retained and Assessed rate for low prior attaining A level students has fallen and is now close to the 2018/19 rate, whereas the rate remains higher for other level 3 cohorts.

A full breakdown of all three retention measures by a range of other student characteristics is available through the table builder. Here, we draw attention to small number of breakdowns that may be of interest.

English Language

Across all level 3 cohorts, students with English as their first language have lower Retained and Assessed rates than students who do not. The difference is driven by poor rates for disadvantaged students with English as their first language.

The applied general cohort similarly has an increase in the Retained and Assessed rate since last year for all major (known) ethnicity groups and shows many of the same trends between groups. The Chinese ethnic group has the highest Retained and Assessed rates since 2018/19 (now at 95.8%) and the Black or Black British ethnic group and the Mixed Dual background ethnic group have made the biggest improvements in Retained and Assessed rates over recent years (+9.9 ppts to 89.1%, +9.9 ppts to 87.0% respectively). Again, the White ethnic group shows the largest disadvantage gap and White disadvantaged students have the lowest rates for Retained and Assessed.

The tech level cohort and the technical certificate cohort have very low numbers in some ethnic groups, and show less distinct patterns over recent years.

For the A level cohort, state-funded mainstream schools and Sixth form colleges have seen an increase in rates for Retained and Assessed this year (+1.5 ppts to 95.4% and +0.5 ppts to 92.3% respectively). In contrast, 'Other FE sector colleges' have seen a decrease (-2.3 ppts to 88.2%). However, the decrease for 'Other FE sector colleges' follows very large increases last year; the relative rates of the three major institution types have returned to levels seen before the change to the trigger rule.

There have also been decreases in the Retained and Assessed rate for 'Other FE sector colleges' in the applied general and tech level cohorts, following larger increases in the previous two years. All state-funded mainstream schools continue to have the lowest Retained and Assessed rates for applied general and tech level qualifications. This has been the case since 2018/19.

This data is available through the 'Explore data and files' section in the file called 'Time series - APS per entry by institution type'.

In addition it is accessible through the dashboard linked below. The dashboard combines data from this statistical release (covering the last 5 years) with selected older data compiled from previous versions of the 'A level and other 16 to 18 results' statistical release:
16-18 Time-series attainment and single year entries
On the left-hand side, clicking on the link ' Attainment: APS per entry and average result' brings up the dashboard with attainment data in terms of APS per entry.

Data including the applied general and tech level cohorts starts in 2015/16 (when these cohorts were first defined in this statistical release, and school and college data). Data for the A level cohort starts in 2012/13.

This data is available through the 'Explore data and files' section in the file called 'Time series - A level subject entries and grade by gender'.

In addition it is accessible through the dashboard linked below. The dashboard combines data from this statistical release (covering the last 5 years) with selected older data compiled from previous versions of the 'A level and other 16 to 18 results' statistical release:
16-18 Time-series attainment and single year entries
On the left-hand side, clicking on the link ' Attainment: A level entries and grade distribution' brings up the dashboard with A level entries data by subject, and A level grades by subject.

These data cover A level entries by students aged 16 to 18 within each academic year from 1995/96.

We have moved our Transition Matrices tool into a web based app for easier use. It is available at the following link:
16-18 Transition Matrices
Transition matrices (TM) are a useful tool to help visualise the progression from different groups of attainment at key stage 4 (KS4) to outcomes achieved during 16 to 18 for a range of different subjects.

Note that the 16 to 18 outcomes here will also be impacted by the different process to award grades in 2022, which is likely to impact the relationship between outcomes and KS4 prior attainment in 2021/22 for subjects.

Help and support

Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

National statistics

These accredited official statistics have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Accreditation signifies their compliance with the authority's Code of Practice for Statistics which broadly means these statistics are:

managed impartially and objectively in the public interest

meet identified user needs

produced according to sound methods

well explained and readily accessible

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

If you have a specific enquiry about A level and other 16 to 18 results statistics and data:

Attainment statistics team

Email: Attainment.STATISTICS@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Michael Greer

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A level and other 16 to 18 results, Academic year 2021/22

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This academic year saw the return of the summer exam series, after they had been cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, where alternative processes were set up to award grades.

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Published: 19th January 2023
"We expect that overall results in summer 2023 will be much closer to the pre-pandemic years than results since 2020. In other words, we expect that overall, nationally, results in 2023 will be lower than they were in 2022."

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Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be with you this afternoon as Chair of Ofqual. Unfortunately, the Chief Regulator is unable to be with us today, which I know she very much regrets. She spoke to your winter conference last year in remote format, but it's obviously much better to be here face to face and talk in person.

And what a difference a year makes. Last year saw the very welcome return of a normal series of examinations and formal assessments, or nearly normal. Thank you for everything you did to enable those to run smoothly in your colleges. I know it wasn't always easy but we had a really good outcome for young people, nonetheless.

I will be saying something later on exams this summer, but I wanted to start with what is happening on the review of level 3 qualifications, including, for example, courses like BTECs at level 3, but also the whole range of alternative academic and technical qualifications at level 3.

I know that there are questions and potentially some concerns about what is happening, including the approval process for continued funding, and why all this is happening, so I thought it might be helpful for me to offer a brief overview.

Aside from a small number of exceptions, all level 3 alternative academic and technical qualifications (qualifications at level 3 which are not T Levels or A levels, like for example level 3 BTECS, alongside many others) are being required to re-apply for funding as part of a government-led streamlining programme for these qualifications.

The government's aim for this exercise is in essence threefold:

firstly, to simplify the landscape, including addressing what is seen as in some cases unnecessary duplication where that exists

to drive up the quality of qualifications and the assessment that underpins them

and to ensure that appropriate priority is given to T Levels and their place in the landscape

These alternative and technical qualifications constitute a large and complex area in comparison, say, with A levels and T Levels. For example, there are more than 60 awarding organisations offering the qualifications that are in scope, and several thousand different level 3 qualifications in the alternative academic and technical space.

Some of these are large entry and well known to you in your colleges, and some, of course, are very small in terms of entry, and not likely to be on your radar as college leaders.

Last week the government published details of their new qualifications funding approval process for qualifications at level 3. Talking to your colleagues, I know that that is under scrutiny by your representatives and I am sure debate will continue. What the document sets out to do is bring clarity on what type of L3 qualifications are likely to be publicly funded alongside A levels and T Levels, and bring clarity on the timescales.

I recommend that you take a look at this for more detailed information. I believe the Department for Education will be running some webinars to look at some of this in more detail, which may be useful for colleagues here as well.

As part of the process that awarding organisations are going through, re-applying for funding, we, Ofqual, are contributing by providing qualitative feedback to the DfE on each qualification where funding is being reapplied for, as well as on the awarding organisation itself.

This means that these qualifications are coming under much greater individual regulatory scrutiny than has been the case up to now. Ofqual has put in place a range of higher expectations relating to quality that we expect awarding organisations to meet in their reapplications. It is against those expectations that we provide our qualitative feedback to the DfE and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE).

As the process plays out, the DfE is taking decisions on funding for the reapplications it receives taking into consideration the quality-based advice Ofqual provides, as well as the contribution of IfATE, that represents the employer voice.

It is probably important to flag that the government absolutely recognises that, alongside the aim of simplifying the landscape, there will, in the future, still need to be a range of qualifications at L3 available alongside A levels and T Levels.

For many students these qualifications are important, not only as vehicles for their continued education and engagement in education, but also because they provide important routes for further study or employment. So there will likely be many decisions to approve applications for funding, alongside decisions not to continue to fund.

You might be wondering what this means for you as a college leader.

In short, unless you are a college which offers only A levels and GCSEs, or T Levels, it is almost certain you will be offering some of these qualifications, maybe for example level 3 BTECs or equivalent.

It is also at least possible that the government will determine that some of those qualifications do not meet the criteria for continued funding, which may mean you will need to take decisions about changing the portfolio of courses you provide in the interests of your students to reflect what is available and funded in the future. So following this process, including through your representatives in this association, to make sure that you are up to speed with decisions being taken is critically important. I am sure you will also continue to make your views heard.

Grading in 2023

Moving on now, I will now say something about arrangements for grading GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2023. We published our plans back in September so that higher education institutions could factor in decisions that were being made about grading before they embarked on their offer-making, and of course because some of you will have been arriving at UCAS predictions for students. We felt it was important you had as much information as possible before you started that process. Our plans for 2023 take us a step further on the road to normality, building on what happened in 2022, while also recognising the impact of the pandemic.

You will recall that in summer 2022, we aimed for a staging post on the way back to more normal grading. In 2023, we will return to pre-pandemic grading, but with some protection in place for your students, a soft landing, if you like.

Students in the 2023 cohort have not, during their exam courses, experienced the level of national school or college closures experienced by students in the 2 years before them. But I know, from listening to teachers, college leaders and students themselves, that many have certainly experienced some level of disruption.

So, to achieve that extra bit of protection, Ofqual will put in place the same sort of safeguards used for the first students taking reformed GCSEs and A levels from 2017 onwards.

Back in the reform context, that meant not disadvantaging students in the first cohorts if overall they performed less well because they were the first to sit the new exams.

So how will it work this summer? In practice, as in any year, grade boundaries for every specification will be set by senior examiners after they have reviewed the work produced by students in their exams.

But those senior examiners will be guided in their decisions about where to set grade boundaries by information about the grades achieved in pre-pandemic years, along with prior attainment data for the cohort.

So that means students in 2023 will be protected in grading terms if their examination performance in 2023 is a little lower than it might have been had the pandemic not taken place. That is what I mean by a soft landing.

What that means is, a typical student who would have achieved an A grade in their A level geography before the pandemic will be just as likely to get an A in summer 2023, even if their performance in the assessments is a little weaker in 2023 than it might have been before the pandemic.

We expect that overall results in summer 2023 will be much closer to the pre-pandemic years than results since 2020. In other words, we expect that overall, nationally, results in 2023 will be lower than they were in 2022.

Individual providers, including colleges and schools, should be prepared for this. I know, as a school leader myself, it's worrying if you look at figures that are lower than the previous year.

It's important that we don't compare the results in 2022 with any other year. Lower results in 2023 compared with 2022 will not mean, by itself, that your college's performance has fallen. It will be much more likely to reflect the return nationally to normal grading standards.

It is important to note that, while we aim to return pretty much to normal grading in 2023, this does not mean there is any nationally pre-determined 'quota' of grades. Every set of grade boundaries, qualification by qualification, is determined by human, senior examiners, taking account of all the information they have available, including actual student performance.

I did want to sound one note of caution: if you are using summer or autumn 2022 papers as mock or trial exams, the grade boundaries set for those papers are likely to be more generous, reflecting the approach we took in 2022, both summer and autumn. Do bear that in mind if you are using the results from mocks to give indicative grades for students being examined this year.

For vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) taken alongside or instead of GCSEs and A levels, awarding organisations are expected to take account of the grading approach being used in GCSEs and A levels. So for VTQ qualifications certificating in 2023, this also means a return to normal grading arrangements.

And a word about universities and higher education: decisions about grading by themselves have no effect on the number of higher education places available. That is determined by other factors and has got nothing to do with grading decisions.

Universities themselves will take account of how exams will be graded when they make their offers, including any differences between the 4 nations of the UK (which already exist). Universities are well-experienced in factoring those in to their offering arrangements.

UCAS wrote out to all schools just after Ofqual announced our grading decision, to explain how offers will be made this year, and to confirm that universities would take our grading decision into account. The Chief Regulator also wrote to admissions officers just before Christmas.

Formulae/equation sheets, MFL and resilience

Further points on 2023: there are one or two changes to support students taking GCSEs. Students will be given formulae sheets for GCSE maths and revised equation sheets for GCSE physics and combined science, which we did in 2022 for those GCSEs. This will give some additional reassurance to GCSE students in the exam itself.

And for modern foreign languages GCSEs, Ofqual's changed requirements mean that exams do not have to test unfamiliar vocabulary. That's to make it feel a bit more accessible for students this year.

Delivering exams

Turning now to resilience, the arrangements in place should the unthinkable happen in summer 2023. Clearly the closer we get to the summer, the less likely that becomes, but we've all learned to be cautious in how we predict the future. In November, Ofqual and the DfE jointly published guidance on resilience, in the very unlikely event that exams are not able to go ahead as planned. Some colleges may be running mock exams now and I know this is a big operation, particularly in colleges such as yours with large cohorts of students. You are also, simultaneously, preparing students to take their end of year exams. Ofqual was conscious of this when we published the guidance.

The thrust of that guidance, designed to minimise the burden on you and your students, is that any assessment opportunities you plan should be in line with your normal approaches, as far as possible.

As well as all the work you do to prepare your students to take their assessments through your teaching and learning, we know that the administration and delivery of exams is something you take seriously. We take our hats off to people in colleges leading the examinations operation.

It is enormously complex, but there is training and support available, and I encourage you to make sure those who are charged with doing this work get access to the range of training available for them so they can benefit from it and deliver as well as possible on behalf of students.

If you've looked at the GCSE and A level exam timetables for next year, you'll see there are some changes from 2022.

The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) listened to feedback about the spacing between exams in the same subject in summer 2022. They have taken this on board for 2023.

They will largely be preserving those gaps, to reduce the risk of students missing all exams in a subject, but the spacing between some papers is slightly less next summer.

I did just want to draw your attention to the contingency days that they have built in. Both the 8 and 15 June will be 'contingency afternoons' and the 28 June will be a contingency day in case there is national or local disruption that would mean exams had to be re-scheduled.

Do please let your students know about this and remind them that they might have to be available on those dates. It's particularly important for them to be aware if they are planning holidays.

There are more details on the JCQ website, and a quick plug for Ofqual's resources as well: every year we provide a guide for students and a guide for schools and colleges. These will be published in the spring, and always live somewhere central on our website. I hope you'll be able to point your students to them.

Vocational and technical qualification results in 2023

And finally, just as Ofqual regulates in the interests of students of all ages and apprentices, we are also convinced of the need for parity of treatment for students across the different sorts of qualifications your colleges provide, whether vocational or academic.

So I wanted to reassure you that we have in train a series of actions to prevent a repeat of the delayed results in vocational and technical qualifications that we saw last August. I know this affected some of you and your students.

We were shocked by what became apparent in August. Not only that around 20,000 students from 1,550 centres had delayed results, but that for some time, there hadn't been a single date by which VTQ students could expect results - even when they were used for progression. That is not acceptable and Ofqual will work with the sector to fix this, not just for this summer, but for the long term and in the interests of being fair to students taking these qualifications.

Our investigation of the awarding organisations involved continues, as does our review of the extent of the problem. We will consider whether enforcement action is appropriate after that concludes.

In December, we published the 5 key actions that Ofqual, working with you and others in the sector, will deliver.

These actions cover a range of areas, and there isn't time to cover them in detail here. They include putting in place clear deadlines, improving data sharing, introducing check-ins for colleges and awarding organisations, improving information accessibility about these qualifications, improving communications from awarding organisations to centres, improving training for staff running exams, and monitoring the implementation of all this via a joint taskforce from around the sector chaired by the Chief Regulator.

We are certain that taken together these actions will to a very significant extent address the issues we saw playing out this summer (and which to a greater or lesser extent have been endemic in the system).

Thank you very much for your attention - I think we still have a few moments for any questions.

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Sir Ian Bauckham CBE at the Sixth Form Colleges Association winter conference

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Ofqual's Chair looks ahead to assessment and examination results in 2023.

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Inspiration Teaching School Hub: Spring Newsletter

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Inspiration Teaching School Hub: Spring Newsletter

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For schools in Mid, South and East Norfolk

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Julian Teaching School Hub: NPQ IN LEADING TEACHING

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Julian Teaching School Hub: NPQ IN LEADING TEACHING

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February 2023 Start

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Julian Teaching School Hub: NPQ IN SENIOR LEADERSHIP

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Julian Teaching School Hub: NPQ IN SENIOR LEADERSHIP

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February 2023 Start

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Ofqual: Letter to Heads and Principals - arrangements for exams and assessments in 2023

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Ofqual: Letter to Heads and Principals - arrangements for exams and assessments in 2023

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Published: 9th December 2022

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Thank you to you and your colleagues for the vital part you played in the successful return to exams and formal assessments earlier this year. Over one million students received more than 5 million qualifications despite the disruption caused by the pandemic. From talking to teachers and students wh…

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National Statistics: 2021/22 16 to 18 Results and Performance Measures 

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National Statistics: 2021/22 16 to 18 Results and Performance Measures 

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Published: 10th November

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This academic year saw the return of the summer exam series, after they had been cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, where alternative processes were set up to award grades. As part of the transition back to the summer exam series adaptations were made to the exams (including advance information) and the approach to grading for 2022 exams broadly reflected a midpoint between results in 2019 and 2021.

The 16 to 18 performance measures reported in this revised release for the 2021/22 academic year, and to be included on the Find School and College Performance Data website, have been affected by our commitment not to include results from qualifications awarded between January 2020 and August 2021 (see section 'Changes to the data in 2021/22').

Throughout this release, comparisons are made with both 2021, the most recent year, and 2019, because it is most meaningful to compare to the last year summer exams were sat. Given the unprecedented change in how A level and vocational and VTQ grades were awarded in 2020 and 2021, as well as changes to the grade boundaries and methods of assessment for 2021/22, users need to exercise caution when considering comparisons over time, as they may not reflect changes in student performance alone.

Related information

Releases in this series

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Methodologies

Headline facts and figures - 2021/22

A level retention

95.1%

An increase of 3.8 ppts from 2018/19

What is this?

This is the headline retention rate for A level programmes. (The percentage of students who completed their A level programme).

Applied general retention

91.7%

An increase of 5.1 ppts from 2018/19

What is this?

This is the headline retention rate for applied general programmes. (The percentage of students who completed their applied general programme).

Tech level retention

91.1%

An increase of 3.2 ppts from 2018/19

What is this?

This is the headline retention rate for tech level programmes. (The percentage of students who completed their tech level programme).

Average Point Score (APS) per entry for all level 3 cohorts is lower compared to 2020/21: A level, -2.8 pts; applied general, -0.7 pts; tech level, - 1.1 pts. However, attainment remains higher compared to 2018/19: A level, +4.9pts; applied general, +3.1 pts; tech level +1.9 pts. [An increase of 10 points is equivalent to an increase in one full grade]. This follows Ofqual's announcement in September 2021 that 2022 will be a transition year where the aim was for exam results to broadly reflect a midway point between 2021 (TAG grades) and 2019 (the last year all students sat exams).

The trend for falling average attainment across level 3 cohorts in 2021/22 compared to 2020/21 was observed across institution types generally (when grouped into state-funded schools, independent schools, sixth form colleges, and 'Other FE sector colleges') with the exception of applied general attainment in sixth form colleges and independent schools which increased in 2021/22 (+ 0.2 pts and + 0.8 pts respectively).

The disadvantage gap (between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students) is at its widest level for all Level 3 cohorts (A level, tech level, and applied general) since disadvantage measures began in 2016/17.

Gender gaps in favour of female students in average attainment at A level, applied general, and tech level have narrowed in 2021/22 compared to 2020/21; average attainment had increased more for female students than males with the alternative Centre Assessment Grade (CAG) and Teacher Assessed Grade (TAG) awarding processes in 2019/20 and 2020/21 compared with 2018/19.

The percentage of students who completed their main or 'core' aim from their study programme, known as the Retention rate, increased across all programmes in 2021/22.

Non-disadvantaged students are more likely to be retained than disadvantaged students, across all cohorts.

Students with higher prior attainment are more likely to be retained than students with lower prior attainment, across all level 3 cohorts.

Given the unprecedented change in the way results were awarded in the summers of 2020 and 2021, as well as the changes to methods of assessment for 2021/22, users need to exercise caution when considering comparisons over time, as they may not reflect changes in pupil performance alone.

The changes seen in the headline statistics likely reflect the changes in methodology for awarding grades and in calculating the measures, rather than demonstrating a difference in standards.

Explore data and files used in this release

View tables that we have built for you, or create your own tables from open data using our table tool

Browse and download open data files from this release in our data catalogue

Learn more about the data files used in this release using our online guidance

Download all data available in this release as a compressed ZIP file

All supporting files from this release are listed for individual download below:

Provisional results (November 2022) for A level and other 16 to 18 results 2021-22

Transition matrices data used for visualising the progress of pupils aged 16 to 18 from key stage 4 (KS4) to key stage 5 (KS5).

Instructions to accompany the transition matrices data

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer exam series was cancelled in both 2020 and 2021, and alternative processes set up to award grades. Throughout this release, comparisons are made with both 2021, the most recent year, and 2019, because it is most meaningful to compare to the last year summer exams were sat.

A/AS and vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs)

In summer 2021 students were awarded A/AS grades based on an assessment by their teachers using a range of available evidence. Students were only assessed on the content they had been taught. In 2021 some VTQ grades were decided using teacher-assessed grades, others using normal assessment routes, and some through adapted assessment such as remote invigilation.

Exceptionally in autumn 2020 and 2021 an autumn series was put in place to allow students the opportunity to try to improve their A level or AS grade from the summer, if they wished to do so. Further information on the autumn 2021 series is available at this link:
https://ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2021/12/16/as-and-a-level-results-in-the-autumn-2021-series/
A/AS exams returned in 2022 and adaptations were made to exams (including advance information), and the approach to grading for 2022 exams broadly reflected a midpoint between results in 2019 and 2021.

The diversity of vocational qualifications meant that Ofqual did not prescribe a single approach to adaptations, so Awarding Organisations (AOs) had flexibility to choose how to adapt their assessments. However, Ofqual's regulatory framework requires AOs as far as possible to ensure VTQ learners were not disadvantaged nor advantaged compared with their A level peers when setting standards.

For further information on the process to award grades in 2021 and 2022 see the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/awarding-qualifications-in-summer-2021/awarding-qualifications-in-summer-2021 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/guidance-for-centres-awarding-vtqs-in-2021-and-2022
Reporting of 2022 results by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and Ofqual

As happens every year on A level results day (18 August for summer 2022 results) JCQ published data on A level entries for qualifications awarded in summer 2022, and for each subject the distribution of grades awarded (with data for the previous summer for reference): https://www.jcq.org.uk/examination-results/

The data published by JCQ can be expected to show the same broad patterns as the underlying data published in this statistical release 'Entries and results - A level and AS by subject and student characteristics (single academic year). However, the coverage of the data is different: JCQ data covers all A level entries in the UK by people of all ages. Data in this statistical release covers exam entries by 16 to 18 year olds in schools and colleges in England, and includes breakdowns by a wide range of student characteristics.

In addition, Ofqual also routinely publish data on results day: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guide-to-as-and-a-level-results-in-england-summer-2022

Data excluded from 2021/22 measures due to alternative assessment arrangements in 2020 and 2021

We have committed not to include results of qualifications achieved between January 2020 and August 2021 in school and college performance measures on Find Schools and College Performance Data website, given the alternative assessment arrangements used to award those grades.

For consistency, when calculating 16 to 18 performance measures for 2021/22 in this statistical release, data will only include entries and grades from qualifications awarded in the 2021/22 academic year, with the exception of AS and A level qualifications taken as part of the extraordinary autumn 2021 examination series which are also excluded.

However, results from qualifications routinely offered in the autumn of 2021 that would usually be approved for reporting, such as vocational and technical qualifications taken in autumn 2021, will be included even if some of the VTQ constituent unit-level grades were awarded between January 2020 and August 2021 via Centre Assessment Grade, Teacher Assessed Grade, or another process.

The table below shows the impact at national level of excluding these data, by comparing the number of students and headline attainment measures for each cohort.

The impact on A level student numbers is modest. It is greater for students entering vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs), who are more likely to enter qualifications over multiple years. It should be noted that students may have results from multiple years including 2021/22. In this case the student is included in this data but some of their results are excluded.

The technical certificate cohort has been substantially impacted by this change, as students are often not triggered for reporting in the same year as they complete the qualification.

Smaller cohorts in 2021/22, do not necessarily translate into impacts on attainment. Nationally, the impact on A level Average Point Score (APS) is minimal (1/200th of a grade) with slightly larger changes for the level 3 vocational and technical qualifications.

Impact of the change

Number of students
-2% -10% -15% -84%

APS
+0.06 +0.60 +0.72 +0.12

Other changes for the 2021/22 release

English and maths progress measures will not be published in this statistical release until these measures return to Find school and college performance data website (likely 2024/25, as set out in 16 to 18 accountability headline measures: technical guide, due to the impact of excluding CAG/TAG grades on this performance measure).

Similarly, 16 to 18 value-added measures, which would rely on KS4 prior attainment including some data from summer 2020, continue not to be published in 2021/22. Value-added measures will return as soon as possible, which will be for the 2023/24 academic year at the earliest; further details are included in the technical guide.

Breakdowns of performance measures by prior attainment, usually published in spring with the Retention update have been brought forward to the provisional release along with other breakdowns by student characteristics. Note, we distinguish between the use of prior attainment data nationally to breakdown measures by student characteristics in this statistical release and their use to calculate performance measures that will be published for individual schools and colleges on Find School and College Performance Data.

SEN Provision contains additional breakdowns by SEN types for the first time in national level data at 16 to 18.

Additional 'bivariate' data giving a breakdown of headline attainment and disadvantage status in combination with other characteristics are available for the first time.

Changes continuing from the 2020/21 release

Characteristic breakdowns usually published in the revised update have been brought forward to the provisional release. This is a permanent change.

The rules for determining when students reach the end of their 16-18 study changed in 2020/21 and students can no longer be triggered solely due to spending two years in the same school or college. The impact of this change on 2020/21 data was to reduce the number of students in each cohort, with vocational and technical qualifications impacted most. In 2021/22, student numbers returned to pre-rule change levels, as expected.

Full details of the trigger change are set out in the section 'Changes introduced in the 2020/21 release' in the Quality and Methodology documentation.

Checking exercise and other amendments

This updated release is based on revised data. Since the release of provisional data in November, amendments to the data have been made. These include the addition of 'late' results from some Awarding Organisations, and changes made by schools and colleges through a 'checking exercise'.

The checking exercise takes place in the autumn term and gives schools and colleges the opportunity to amend their data. Some students are removed from a school or colleges results, for example because the student wasn't on roll or has not yet completed 16-18 study. Some students are added where they are flagged by a school or college as having completed 16-18 study despite not being triggered. Changes need to be approved to be included in revised data.

The 2021/22 academic year saw the return of the school and college checking exercise, after it was suspended in the two previous years. In this release data for 2019/20 and 2020/21 is labelled as 'final' data. This is provisional data adjusted for results from the autumn series for AS and A levels. (The autumn series gave students an opportunity to sit an exam if they were unhappy with the grade awarded to them through the alternative process). Data from 2019/20 and 2020/21 did not go through a checking exercise; schools and colleges did not have an opportunity to amend their data as described above.

The table shows the size of the change between provisional and revised/final data. Generally, the change in the numbers of students included in the data in 2021/22 is relatively small in terms of the overall cohort size, the exception being technical certificates where there are 655 more students in the revised release than the provisional (an increase of 87%). This increase is predominantly due to results being reported late by Awarding Organisations.

The size of the change between provisional and revised data is generally smaller in 2021/22 than in 2017/18 and 2018/19. Changes to the trigger rule were introduced to reduce the burden on schools and colleges. This gives an indication that the change is working as intended.

Change in the numbers of students between the provisional and revised/final data:

Cohort

Report year

2017/18

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

The table below shows the size of the change in the average point score between the provisional and the revised release. The changes are minimal. A change of 0.1 pts at A level / applied general / tech level is equivalent to 1/100th of a grade.

Change in Average Point Score (APS) per entry between the provisional and revised/final data.

Report year

2017/18

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

Unless stated otherwise statistics reported here refer to 16 to 18 year olds in England:

who reached the end of their 16 to 18 study in 2021/22. Students typically spend either two or three years in the 16 to 18 phase. (Usually, attainment includes results from qualifications entered during all those years. However, this year, attainment excludes results from qualifications that were awarded between January 2020 and August 2021).

who entered qualifications approved for reporting in 2022 school and college performance tables, set out in the 16 to 18 qualifications, discount codes and point scores guidance.

Qualifications are grouped into A level (subset of Academic), Applied General, and Tech Level exam cohorts at level 3, and Technical Certificates at level 2. Students can be reported in more than one exam cohort.

Student numbers by cohort

Students are included in this statistical release when they reach the end of their 16 to 18 study in schools and colleges in England. As set out in the Methodology guidance, the rules for determining when that happens changed in 2020/21, and students are no longer automatically triggered for reporting after spending two years in the same school or college.

The impact of the trigger change in 2020/21 was to reduce the number of students in each cohort, with vocational and technical qualifications impacted most. As expected, student numbers have generally returned to their pre-rule change level in 2021/22, with student numbers in all level 3 cohorts being higher than in 2019/20 and 2020/21.

Results for qualifications awarded between January 2020 and August 2021 have been excluded from the data. The technical certificate cohort has been substantially impacted by this change, as students are often not triggered for reporting until they turn 18, often a year or two after they complete the qualification. More detail is provided in the section 'Changes to the data in 2021/22', where in particular excluding CAG and TAG grades reduced reported technical certificate student numbers by 84%.

The growth in the number of students entered for applied general and tech level qualifications in 2021/22 approved for reporting in performance measures reflects the removal of funding approval from 1 August 2020 for pre-existing qualifications which were running in parallel with newer redeveloped qualifications. Prior to that numbers had been increasing more slowly following big falls in 2017/18 when qualifications were reformed. The number of students in the A level cohort, which includes students who only enter AS levels, has increased after several years of decline. (The previous decline reflected fewer AS level entries following the now completed A level reform to decouple A and AS levels.)

The overall growth in student numbers may also be partly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some students reported here completed their pre-16 study in 2019/20 where higher grades were awarded via Centre Assessment Grades. These higher grades resulted in greater numbers of students applying for post-16 places and may have shifted some students away from level two technical certificates and into level 3 qualifications. There were also fewer alternative options available for these students in terms of apprenticeships and other employment opportunities ( Key stage 4 destination measures showed that a smaller proportion of students who completed key stage 4 in 2019/20 progressed to sustained apprenticeship or employment outcomes in 2020/21).

Disadvantage

Disadvantaged students are all students who were in receipt of pupil premium when they were in their last year of KS4.

Disadvantage measures do not include students who were not reported at the end of KS4 - for example, because they came from overseas. Students who were known to be at independent schools in their last year of KS4 are treated as non-disadvantaged.

Disadvantage measures cover students in state-funded schools or colleges.

23.6% of state-funded students, at the end of 16 to 18 study, were recorded as having disadvantaged status in 2021/22. The percentage of students examined in level 3 vocational and technical qualifications was generally in line with this. (Applied general 23.0% and tech level 23.0%). Disadvantages students were overrepresented at technical certificate with 32.4% of the cohort identified as having disadvantaged status. Disadvantaged students were underrepresented at A level with 14.3% of the cohort identified as having disadvantaged status.

Prior attainment

Prior attainment is a measure of the average points attained per qualification at Key Stage 4. Simple discounting rules apply, with the best result in any subject used when calculating the average point score at KS4. Any GCSE resits or additional qualifications gained during 16 to 18 are ignored. For the vast majority, prior attainment is between 0-9 reflecting the range of possible grades at GCSE (where 9 is the highest grade).

[Note, whilst results from January 2020 to August 2021 are removed from calculation of performance measures, for the purposes of this statistical release they will be retained when calculating a student's prior attainment to explain outcomes in performance measures, in the same way that outcomes nationally are broken down by gender, disadvantage, etc].

In 2021/22, 18.4% of students at the end of their 16 to 18 study had the highest prior attainment (grade 7+). The large majority of students with the highest prior attainment choose to study at least one A/AS level (94.8%). High attainers now make up 36.2% of the A level cohort compared to 4.7% of the applied general and 3.7% of the tech level cohort. The proportion of students with the highest prior attainment has increased year on year for each cohort since 2019/20 (from when KS4 prior attainment has been calculated in this release).

27.5% of students at the end of 16 to 18 study in 2021/22 had the lowest prior attainment (from grade 0 up to grade 4). The proportion of students with the lowest prior attainment has decreased year on year for each exam cohort since 2019/20.

This change in the distribution of prior attainment for exam cohorts, will in part reflect year on year grade increases at KS4 and in part reflect that the majority of students at the end of 16-18 study in 2021/22 will have completed KS4 in 2019/20, and whose GCSE prior attainment will include Centre Assessment Grades (CAG).

Summary

These figures give the average points and average result that students achieved throughout their 16 to 18 study. Results awarded between January 2020 and August 2021 have been excluded from this data. (See the section 'Changes to the data in 2021/22). While the majority of results come from the student's final year of study (in particular for A levels), a small number of results awarded prior to January 2020 are included.

Points are given to all qualifications so we can compare qualifications of different size and grading structures. A maximum of 60 points are available for A level, 50 points for applied general and tech level and 8 points for technical certificates. More information on points, APS bands and grade boundaries can be found in the technical guide for 16 to 18 accountability measures (from page 27).

In September 2021 Ofqual announced that 2022 will be a transition year where the aim was for exam results to broadly reflect a midway point between 2021 and 2019. Consequently, the average results are lower in 2021/22 across all level 3 cohorts than in 2020/21.

A level programmes have seen the largest decrease (2.8 pts, compared to 0.7 pts for applied general and 1.1 pts for tech level). This is as expected due to the larger increases seen in A level grades between 2018/19 and 2020/21 relative to the vocational and technical qualifications. Technical certificates have seen a small increase (0.2 pts) in the average points score. However, interpretation of this increase is undermined by a 58% drop in cohort numbers. Given that 84% of technical certificate students have been excluded form the data (see 'Changes to the data in 2021/22'), technical certificate results will not be discussed in the breakdowns, however the data is available in the table builder tool.

For all Level 3 cohorts, the average result remains the same as in 2020/21.

At A level, the South East, London and East of England tend to do better, being on or near the top in the last 3 years. These same regions have ranked in the bottom 4 for applied general in the same time period.

The North West is in the top half of the table for both A level and applied general, although the region dipped in both exam cohorts in 2020/21 when teacher assessed grades were used.

The East Midlands is in the bottom half of the table for both A level and applied general. The region attained the lowest A level results this year.

Regional rankings are more variable for tech levels (which may be attributable to the smaller total number of tech level entries).

Average results by disadvantage status

The 2021/22 disadvantage gap has increased in comparison to last year for the A level cohort and has remained stable for applied general and tech level cohorts. For the level 3 exam cohorts, the average point score has decreased for both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students, however for A level students, the decrease was larger for disadvantaged students.

The disadvantage gap for Level 3 cohorts is at its widest point since the measure was introduced in 2016/17. (NB, this statistical release contains data for the last 5 years back to 2017/18, but disadvantage data was first published based on 2016/17 revised data).

To get a fuller picture on the impact of disadvantage status, this data should be looked at in conjunction with data on retention rates (the percentage of students who have completed their main study programme at a provider). In 2020/21, 94.3% of non-disadvantaged A level students were retained and assessed compared to 88.5% of disadvantaged students. Students are only included in the average point score measure if they are entered for examination i.e. if they are retained and assessed. More information on 2020/21 retention can be found in the 2020/21 version of this statistical release. An update to this statistical release with 2021/22 retention figures will be released on 30th March 2023.

Average results by gender

For the level 3 exam cohorts, both female and male students saw a drop in average attainment in 2021/22 when compared to 2020/21. The decrease was larger for female students than male students, which has resulted in a narrowing of the gender gap compared to last year.

When compared to 2018/19, the gender gap is slightly wider for A level students, but slightly narrower for applied general students in 2021/22. For tech level students the gender gap has reversed such that in 2018/19 it was in favour of male students, but since 2020/21 it has been in favour of female students.

The gender gap for the percentage of students achieving at least 2 A levels has been continuously decreasing for the past 5 years, falling from 5.2 ppts in 2017/18 to 0.9 ppts in 2021/22 in favour of female students.

Average results by ethnicity

Of the major ethnicity groups, Black or Black British students attained the lowest average result across all level 3 cohorts in 2021/22. At A level, Black or Black British students' attainment was almost a full grade lower than that of Chinese students. The rank order of attainment by ethnicity has remained almost unchanged at A level through the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes to the grading processes.

Prior attainment

Typically, the higher the average KS4 prior attainment, the higher the average outcome at the end of 16 to 18 study, regardless of the programme of study.

The attainment gap between students with the highest and lowest prior attainment has remained stable throughout different grading processes since 2019/20 (when this prior attainment data is available). The attainment gap at A level is around 25 pts (or 2.5 grades) and at applied general and tech level is around 19 pts (or just under 2 grades).

Average results for other student characteristics

Breakdowns of other student characteristics, including SEN provision, first language and more, are available in the featured tables and create your own tables sections of this statistical release.

This year we have introduced a new data file to this statistical release called 'Attainment and other performance measures - student characteristics and disadvantage status'. This data file gives more detail about disadvantaged students by breaking down the disadvantaged status of students by other student characteristics. In breaking down the data in this way we hope to be able to better identify how student characteristics interact. The following sections show some illustrative analyses.

Disadvantage and prior attainment

The distribution of disadvantaged students is uneven across the prior attainment bands. At A level, 9.3% of students in state-funded institutions with the highest prior attainment (grade 7+) have disadvantaged status, while 27.8% with prior attainment from grade 0 up to grade 4 have disadvantaged status.

At A level the disadvantage gap for students with the lowest prior attainment was 1.3 pts in 2021/22 or just over 1/10th of a grade. The gap increased to 2.8 pts for A level students with prior attainment from grade 4 up to grade 7 and 3.5 pts (or just over 1/3 of a grade) for students with the highest prior attainment.

The increase in the overall A level disadvantage gap was driven by the increase in the disadvantage gap for students with the highest prior attainment. (Up 0.9 pts from 2.7 pts in 2020/21). There was a small increase for those with prior attainment of grade 4 up to grade 7 (up 0.2 pts from 2.6 pts) and the gap stayed steady for those with prior attainment of grade 0 up to grade 4.

Disadvantage and other student characteristics

Across level 3 exam cohorts, non-disadvantaged students with English as their first language obtained higher average results than students with a first language other than English. However, the reverse is true for disadvantaged students. Here students with a first language other than English achieved higher average results.

Disadvantaged Black or Black British students attained the lowest average results in 2021/22 of any ethnicity across level 3 cohorts. Non-disadvantaged Black or Black British students also attained lower average results than their non-disadvantaged peers. White students had the biggest disadvantage gaps (of students with known ethnicity) across level 3 cohorts.

The disadvantage gap remains greater for female students in all level 3 cohorts, as it has since 2019/20.

Summary

Data in this section covers A level entries and results for all students aged 16-18 at the start of the respective year. Students don't need to be triggered for inclusion in this data, so it is not impacted by the change in the 'trigger' rules, introduced in 2020/21, that determined when a student had reached the end of 16-18 study. It is also not impacted by removing CAG and TAG grades from data for 2021/22.

The chart below shows the distribution of A level grades for students aged 16 to 18 for each academic year. Overall, the proportion of entries achieving top grades (between A* and B) has decreased in comparison to 2020/21 but remains higher than 2018/19.

In 2021/22, 14.8% of awarded grades were at A*. This is an increase of 6.9ppts from 2018/19, but a decrease of 4.3ppts from 2020/21. The percentage of entries achieving A*-A grades is now 36.4%, which similarly corresponds to an increase of 10.6ppts compared to 2018/19 but a decrease of 7.9ppts from 2020/21. As previously noted however, year on year comparisons cannot be interpreted as students achieving at a higher standard. Where achievement gaps alter in 2019/20 and 2020/21 compared to previous years, it might reflect the different process by which grades were awarded across these years.

A level results by gender

Overall, in 2021/22 both male and female students were more likely to be awarded the higher A level grades (A*/A/B) than in 2018/19 but less likely than in 2020/21.

Across the top A* and A*-A grades the gender gap has decreased in comparison to 2020/21. Female students continue to be more likely to achieve these grades, which has been the trend for the last three years (since 2019/20) when a reversal of the gender gap was observed.

At A*-B the gap between female and male student achievement had been continuously increasing since 2017/18, however this year the gender gap has reduced from 6.9ppts in 2020/21 to 4.7ppts.

Data is this section covers A level entries and results for all students aged 16 to 18 at the start of respective year. Students don't need to be triggered for inclusion in this data, so it is not impacted by the change in the 'trigger' rules, introduced in 2020/21, that determined when a student had reached the end of 16 to 18 study. It is also not impacted by removing CAG and TAG grades from data for 2021/22.

STEM subjects here are defined as: biology, chemistry, physics, maths, further maths, and computing.

A level grades in STEM subjects

For 2021/22, the proportion of students achieving top grades (A*, A*-A, A*-B) in STEM subjects compared to 2020/21 has fallen. At A*, the largest decrease was in further maths (8.4ppts) and the smallest decrease was in physics (4.7ppts).

The STEM subjects have generally seen large increases in the proportion of students achieving top grades when compared to 2018/19. The largest increase at A* was further maths rising by 15.7ppts, and the smallest increase was in biology at 6.3ppts. The A*-A grade boundary also observed large increases in the proportion of entries achieving these grades, ranging from computer science (17.1ppts increase) to maths (6.6ppts increase).

This section replaces one that usually describes outcomes in the English and maths progress accountability measures. These are not being created in 2021/22 in Find School and College Performance Data due to the impact of excluding CAG and TAG grades on this measure (set out in more detail in the 16 to 18 accountability measures: technical guide).

These alternative data have been published as part of this statistical release since 2015/16. Coverage is all entries and outcomes in below level 3 English and maths qualifications for students aged 16 to 18 at the start of the respective year. Unlike data based on students at the end of 16-18 study, it means these data are not impacted by the trigger change in 2020/21, and not impacted by removing CAG and TAG grades from data for 2021/22.

It also means a student here can be reported in successive years, for example at age 16 in 2019/20, at age 17 in 2020/21, and at age 18 in 2021/22 if they entered exams in each year.

The tables below focus on GCSEs, and Functional Skills qualifications at level 2, level 1 and Entry level which make up the large majority of English and maths qualifications entered below level 3 (though outcomes for Other level 2, level 1, and Entry Level qualifications are available via the 'Explore data and files' section).

Fewer students are entering below level 3 maths and English qualifications

Most students aged 16 to 18 enter below level 3 English and maths qualifications because they did not achieve a GCSE pass at grade 9-4 or equivalent during key stage 4, and so are required to continue to study those subjects under Condition of Funding rules (CoF).

The overall fall observed in the number of below level 3 entries across both English and maths in GCSEs and Functional Skills is consistent with data published in Key Stage 4 performance showing an increasing proportion of pupils achieving grades 4 or above in English and maths GCSE during key stage 4 ( increasing from 59.8% in 2018/19 to 67.1% in 2020/21 in provisional data) - and so not being required to study below level 3 English or maths during the 16-18 phase.

An additional factor explaining the big fall in entries at GCSE from 2019/20 to 2021/22 (-27% English, -12% maths) is the higher proportion of GCSE entries in 2019/20 and 2020/21 during the 16-18 phase that resulted in a grade 9-4 pass, when grades were awarded through the CAG and TAG processes, because once a student achieves a 9-4 GCSE pass during 16-18 they no longer have to continue studying English and/or maths the following year.

Achievement of Level 2 English and maths through GCSE and Functional Skills qualifications

Many more age 16-18 students enter GCSEs (a level 1/level 2 qualification) than are entered for Functional skills (distinct qualifications at level 2, level 1 and Entry level).

Overall pass rates are broadly comparable at GCSE and L1 and L2 Functional skills. Given that the prior attainment distributions are similar at GCSE and level 2 functional skills (see table below), we might have expected to see a higher level 2 pass rate (grades 9-4) at GCSE. Although it is difficult to make direct comparisons due to range of grades available within the GCSE qualification.

Qualification KS4 Prior Attainment English entries in 2021/22 Proportion of English entries at prior attainment band maths entries in 2021/22 Proportion of maths entries at prior attainment band

All level 1 and level 2 qualifications have had decreases in their pass rates in 2021/22. Mathematics qualifications have seen much larger decreases than English across all qualifications.

Maths L2 functional skills decreased by 20.8 ppts to 63.6% (12.0 ppts fall in English to 81.0%). Maths L1 functional skills decreased by 10.2 ppts to 85.4% (English fall, 3.3ppts to 94.0%). For maths GCSE the overall pass rate (grade 9-1) decreased by 5.8ppts to 84.9% (English decreased by 3.7 ppts to 85.8%) and the level 2 pass rate (grade 9-4) also decreased 16.7ppts to 15.3% for Maths and 13.9ppts to 25.7% for English

In contrast, at KS4 the English language GCSE level 2 pass rate (grade 9-4) fell by more than maths. English language fell by 4.0 ppts and maths by 3.1ppts between 2020/21 and 2021/22 (provisional data).

Pass rates in English and maths at level 2 by institution type

GCSE entries by students at independent schools are most likely to pass at level 2, but it should be noted that Condition of Funding rules are not relevant for these schools, and these students may be resitting GCSEs to improve their KS4 grade, which could have already been at grade 4 or above. Amongst state-funded institutions, students in schools are consistently most likely to pass GCSE at level 2, then sixth form colleges and other FE sector colleges in both English and maths in 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Level 2 Functional Skills entries: within state-funded institutions sixth form colleges and 'Other FE sector' colleges are consistently more likely to pass than schools. Most entries in L2 Functional Skills are in 'Other FE sector' colleges.

Applied general, tech level, and technical certificate qualifications approved for reporting in this statistical release (and institution level performance data) are updated annually and published on gov.uk:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/performance-tables-technical-and-vocational-qualifications
The concept of qualifications approved for reporting has been applied since 2015/16 following Professor Alison Wolf's Review of Vocational Education. From 2017/18 at level 3 and from 2018/19 for technical certificates, the quality threshold for vocational and technical qualifications to be included in performance measures further increased. The later reforms include criteria relating to the size, content, and assessment, including a requirement that a proportion of a qualification's content is subject to external assessment. From 1 August 2020 the ESFA removed funding approval for pre-existing applied general and tech level qualifications (which had been approved in 2015/16 and 2016/17) which were running in parallel with newer redeveloped qualifications.

The measures presented in this section show the students entering these approved qualifications as a proportion of students entering a wider set of vocational qualifications that had been approved by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) for funding during 16 to 18 study.

Proportions entering approved tech level and applied general qualifications continue to increase following a large fall in 2017/18 (when both lists of approved qualifications changed substantially), with a jump in students entering reformed versions of qualifications in 21/22 (in part attributable to the defunding of unreformed pre-existing qualifications).

The coverage of the measure for technical certificates is strongly impacted by the removal of CAG and TAG data from 2021/22 accountability data (as coverage is students at the end of 16-18 study, and level 2 vocational qualifications are more often entered during a student's first year of 16-18 study and so are excluded from the calculation).

The following table shows that there is variation in whether different institution types enter students for qualifications approved for reporting in performance tables versus the wider set of qualifications that were approved for funding.

Overall students in state-funded schools continue to be most likely to enter reformed versions of vocational and technical qualifications at level 3 (reformed in 2017/18), but 2021/22 saw a marked increase in the proportion of students entering approved/reformed applied general and tech levels across all broad institution types.

Introduction to retention measures

The Retention measure shows the percentage of students who are retained to the end of the 'core aim' (or main learning aim) of their study programme at a school or college.

Students are counted as retained if they are recorded as having "completed the learning activities leading to the learning aim" by their institution. This information is collected in the school census or for students that attended sixth form or FE colleges, the Individualised Learner Record (ILR).

Retention measures are not calculated for independent schools or special schools (both independent and maintained) as learning aims data is not available for these schools.

The Retention measure is calculated by dividing the total number of students retained by the total number of students with a core aim, in each of the five programmes approved for reporting in performance tables: academic, A level, applied general, tech level, and at level 2, technical certificate programmes.

Since academic programmes comprise largely of A levels, only data for A level core aims are described here; overall data for academic programmes can be found in the 'create your own tables' section and in the underlying data available to download.

Alongside the headline Retention measure there are two supporting retention measures:

Retained and Assessed: The percentage of students who are retained to the end of their course and are assessed.

Returned and Retained for a second year: The percentage of level 3 students who return to the same provider and complete their programme of study in their second year. (The main difference when compared to Retention is for students who complete their core aim in one year.)

A fuller description of the methodology underlying retention measures can be found in the 16-18 technical guide (from page 41).

Retention measures and the impact of the trigger change in 2020/21

The impact of the trigger rule change, meaning that students were no longer automatically reported after two years in 16-18 study, was to reduce the reported number of students in scope for retention measures across all exam cohorts in 2020/21, with the biggest impact on vocational and technical cohorts (VTQs).

For retention measures, this meant that Retention rates were slightly increased in 2020/21 for level 3 cohorts (A level, applied general, tech level) than would have been seen otherwise. However, the impact on the level 2 technical certificate cohort was a large decrease in Retention rates (and in cohort size).

Fuller analysis on the impact on 2020/21 retention data can be found in the methodology document, in the section 'Changes introduced in the 2020/21 release', under the heading 'Impact of the trigger change on headline retention rates'.

Students whose reporting was delayed for one year due to the 2020/21 trigger change are reported in 2021/22. In other words, the impact of the trigger change was one-off discontinuity in retention data for 2020/21. For this reason, when looking at trends, data for 2021/22 is better compared to data for 2019/20 and earlier years.

All level 3 study programmes show increases in Retention rates in 2021/22 (A level +0.1 pts to 95.1%; applied general +1.8 pts to 91.7%; tech level +0.5 ppts to 91.1%). This continues a trend of increasing Retention rates since 2018/19. A level programmes continue to have the highest Retention rate as has been the case since the measure was introduced in 2015/16, but for the first time applied general programmes have a higher Retention rate than tech levels programmes.

Technical certificates have had lower Retention rates than Level 3 cohorts since being added to performance measures in 2016/17. However, they have seen an increase in Retention rate this year (+4.5 ppts to 86.6%), recovering from the impact of the trigger change that was seen last year and returning to previously-seen levels.

For the A level and applied general cohorts, rates for the Retained and Assessed measure have increasingly followed the same general trend as the Retention rate in recent years. Similarly, the Returned and Retained measure now also follows the same trend. This is most notable for the A level cohort where the phased decoupling of AS and A levels predominantly between 2017 and 2019 has resulted in a much smaller proportion of the A level cohort taking AS levels only and not then returning for a second year of study.

The tech level cohort shows a slightly different pattern this year whereby the Retained and Assessed rate has dropped slightly despite increases in both the Retained rate (retention to the end of the course) and the Returned and Retained rate (retention specifically over two years of a course). This means that within this cohort there was an increase in the proportion of students not being assessed at the end of their course .

The much smaller technical certificate cohort (Level 2) was heavily impacted by the trigger change in 2020/21 and shows less stable trends. In addition, the low cohort numbers mean that breakdowns of the technical certificate data, by student characteristics become increasingly unreliable, and therefore this cohort isn't discussed further.

Due to the similarity in the trends shown by the three retention measures, in particular for the two largest cohorts (A level and applied general), our further narrative will focus on the Retained and Assessed measure. Further breakdowns of the Retention measure and the Returned and Retained measure across all qualification cohorts are available in underlying data and through the table builder.

The Retained and Assessed rate is higher for non-disadvantaged students across all level 3 cohorts. Disadvantaged tech level students are least likely to be Retained and Assessed at 79.1%, which is 7.1 ppts lower than their non-disadvantaged peers. The Retained and Assessed disadvantage gap is smaller for A level and applied general (5.6 ppts and 5.3 ppts respectively).

The disadvantage gap has been narrowing for the A level cohort since 2018/19 (from 8.4 ppts to 5.6 ppts). Similarly, the applied general cohort has, overall, seen a substantial decrease in the gap in that time (from 7.9 ppts to 5.6 ppts). In contrast, the tech level cohort did not consolidate an initial decrease in the gap in 2019/20 and is now only slightly smaller than in 2018/19 (from 7.6 ppts to 7.1 ppts).

Changes to the distribution of prior attainment at A level between 2017/18 and 2021/22

The coverage of the retention measures is different to the attainment measures, and is described above in 'Retention: introduction and changes to the data in 2021/22'. The largest difference is that independent schools are excluded from the data, and this impacts the distribution of the prior attainment groups as students from independent schools have higher prior attainment on average.

The distribution of prior attainment has changed over time for all cohorts. The proportion of A level students with low prior attainment (from grade 0 up to grade 4) has decreased from 8.1% of the cohort in 2017/18 to 1.9% in 2021/22. High prior attaining students (average grade 7 or more) have increased their proportion of the cohort from 16.1% in 2017/18 to 35.3% in 2021/22.

This increase in the proportion of KS4 students achieving grades averaging 7 or more, in part reflects year on year grade increases at KS4, and in part reflects that most A level students at the end of 16-18 study in 2021/22 will have completed KS4 in 2019/20, and so their GCSE prior attainment will include Centre Assessment Grades (CAG).

However, in the vocational and technical cohorts, a larger proportion of students are being reported after three years in 16-18, hence prior attainment for these cohorts is less affected by CAGs. This is following delay in their reporting last year due to the change in the rule in 2020/21 triggering students for reporting.

Overall, students with the highest average prior attainment (grade 7+) are most likely to be Retained and Assessed in their main programme of study and students with the lowest prior attainment (grade 0 up to grade 4) the least likely to be Retained and Assessed. The highest Retained and Assessed rate is for high prior attaining A level students at 98.7%. The lowest Retained and Assessed rate is also for A level students. Low prior attaining A level students have a Retained and Assessed rate of 66.0%.

The Retained and Assessed rate for low prior attaining A level students has fallen and is now close to the 2018/19 rate, whereas the rate remains higher for other level 3 cohorts.

A full breakdown of all three retention measures by a range of other student characteristics is available through the table builder. Here, we draw attention to small number of breakdowns that may be of interest.

English Language

Across all level 3 cohorts, students with English as their first language have lower Retained and Assessed rates than students who do not. The difference is driven by poor rates for disadvantaged students with English as their first language.

The applied general cohort similarly has an increase in the Retained and Assessed rate since last year for all major (known) ethnicity groups and shows many of the same trends between groups. The Chinese ethnic group has the highest Retained and Assessed rates since 2018/19 (now at 95.8%) and the Black or Black British ethnic group and the Mixed Dual background ethnic group have made the biggest improvements in Retained and Assessed rates over recent years (+9.9 ppts to 89.1%, +9.9 ppts to 87.0% respectively). Again, the White ethnic group shows the largest disadvantage gap and White disadvantaged students have the lowest rates for Retained and Assessed.

The tech level cohort and the technical certificate cohort have very low numbers in some ethnic groups, and show less distinct patterns over recent years.

For the A level cohort, state-funded mainstream schools and Sixth form colleges have seen an increase in rates for Retained and Assessed this year (+1.5 ppts to 95.4% and +0.5 ppts to 92.3% respectively). In contrast, 'Other FE sector colleges' have seen a decrease (-2.3 ppts to 88.2%). However, the decrease for 'Other FE sector colleges' follows very large increases last year; the relative rates of the three major institution types have returned to levels seen before the change to the trigger rule.

There have also been decreases in the Retained and Assessed rate for 'Other FE sector colleges' in the applied general and tech level cohorts, following larger increases in the previous two years. All state-funded mainstream schools continue to have the lowest Retained and Assessed rates for applied general and tech level qualifications. This has been the case since 2018/19.

This data is available through the 'Explore data and files' section in the file called 'Time series - APS per entry by institution type'.

In addition it is accessible through the dashboard linked below. The dashboard combines data from this statistical release (covering the last 5 years) with selected older data compiled from previous versions of the 'A level and other 16 to 18 results' statistical release:
16-18 Time-series attainment and single year entries
On the left-hand side, clicking on the link ' Attainment: APS per entry and average result' brings up the dashboard with attainment data in terms of APS per entry.

Data including the applied general and tech level cohorts starts in 2015/16 (when these cohorts were first defined in this statistical release, and school and college data). Data for the A level cohort starts in 2012/13.

This data is available through the 'Explore data and files' section in the file called 'Time series - A level subject entries and grade by gender'.

In addition it is accessible through the dashboard linked below. The dashboard combines data from this statistical release (covering the last 5 years) with selected older data compiled from previous versions of the 'A level and other 16 to 18 results' statistical release:
16-18 Time-series attainment and single year entries
On the left-hand side, clicking on the link ' Attainment: A level entries and grade distribution' brings up the dashboard with A level entries data by subject, and A level grades by subject.

These data cover A level entries by students aged 16 to 18 within each academic year from 1995/96.

We have moved our Transition Matrices tool into a web based app for easier use. It is available at the following link:
16-18 Transition Matrices
Transition matrices (TM) are a useful tool to help visualise the progression from different groups of attainment at key stage 4 (KS4) to outcomes achieved during 16 to 18 for a range of different subjects.

Note that the 16 to 18 outcomes here will also be impacted by the different process to award grades in 2022, which is likely to impact the relationship between outcomes and KS4 prior attainment in 2021/22 for subjects.

Help and support

Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

National statistics

These accredited official statistics have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Accreditation signifies their compliance with the authority's Code of Practice for Statistics which broadly means these statistics are:

managed impartially and objectively in the public interest

meet identified user needs

produced according to sound methods

well explained and readily accessible

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

If you have a specific enquiry about A level and other 16 to 18 results statistics and data:

Attainment statistics team

Email: Attainment.STATISTICS@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Michael Greer

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Telephone: 037 0000 2288

Opening times:
Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays)

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A level and other 16 to 18 results, Academic year 2021/22

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This academic year saw the return of the summer exam series, after they had been cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, where alternative processes were set up to award grades.

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JCQ: Key dates in the examination cycle document - June 2023

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JCQ: Key dates in the examination cycle document - June 2023

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Published: 8th November 2022
Contingency days update: Timetabled for the afternoons of the 8 and 15 June and all day of 28 June 2023. To be used in the event of national or significant local disruption to examinations

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Ofqual & DfE: Consultation on Ensuring the resilience of the qualifications system in 2023: GCSE, AS, A level, Project and AEA

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Ofqual & DfE: Consultation on Ensuring the resilience of the qualifications system in 2023: GCSE, AS, A level, Project and AEA

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Published: 29th September 2022
Deadline: 20th October 2022

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Detail of outcome

As outlined in our consultation document, both the DfE and Ofqual have responsibilities in this area, and so we consulted jointly.

The DfE is responsible for its policy for qualifications (including whether the government considers that exams can go ahead safely and fairly as planned) and the subject content that is taught and assessed. Ofqual is responsible for assessment arrangements and is therefore responsible for setting rules to implement alternative arrangements, if required.

As outlined in the consultation, the DfE considers that, if it becomes necessary to cancel exams this should apply to all students and a TAG approach should be implemented nationally. This would only happen due to an event like the pandemic which has such severe and catastrophic consequences for a significant number of students. The DfE has also confirmed that TAGs would not be used to award a grade when exams take place.

In line with our respective responsibilities, Ofqual and the DfE have decided to implement the proposals set out in the consultation about the provision of guidance for teachers on how they should collect evidence of student performance. The DfE has decided that the provision of guidance for schools and colleges is appropriate, given its responsibilities in this area. Ofqual has decided that the proposed guidance would support schools and colleges in gathering evidence of student performance that could be used to determine a TAG should exams not be able to go ahead as planned. Ofqual has revised the guidance consulted on, in response to feedback, with a view to minimise further the burden on students, schools and colleges. Ofqual has taken a decision to publish the final guidance, in line with its responsibilities for qualifications and assessments, including in the unlikely case that exams cannot go ahead.

The government is firmly committed to exams taking place. Schools and colleges are, therefore, not asked to determine TAGs and should not seek to do so. Guidance on how to determine a TAG, and on any quality assurance and appeal processes, will be provided only in the unlikely event that exams are not able to go ahead safely or fairly. These arrangements would depend on the nature and timing of any decision that exams cannot take place.

In this decisions document and the accompanying analysis, we have not sought to discuss every point made by those who responded to our consultation. In taking our respective decisions and finalising the guidance we have, however, considered all the points made in response to the consultation.

Detail of feedback received

The Department for Education (DfE) and Ofqual welcomed the return of exams and other formal assessments in summer 2022, for the first time since 2019. Exams and other formal assessments are the best and fairest way of assessing what students know and can do. That's why it was so important that students were able to take exams in 2022 and can continue to take them in 2023 and in the future.

The national cancellation of exams - and the need for alternative assessment arrangements - is now very unlikely. The government does not expect to ever be in the situation again where exams do not go ahead, but good public policy means having contingency, even for extremely unlikely scenarios.

A consultation, prepared jointly by the DfE and Ofqual, invited views on guidance to schools and colleges about gathering assessment evidence to support resilience in the exams system in the unlikely event it is necessary to use that evidence to inform Teacher Assessed Grades (TAGs). The proposed guidance was designed to allow schools and colleges to decide how to gather evidence of student performance in assessments in ways that align with their normal arrangements for preparing students for exams. The consultation asked for the views of relevant people and institutions, such as students, teachers, exam boards, schools and colleges and their representatives on the proposed guidance. In particular, it sought their views on whether it supported the gathering of evidence to build resilience in the system whilst minimising any additional burden on teachers and students.

Responses to the consultation have informed the arrangements for gathering assessment evidence to support resilience in the exams system in 2023 that we have now put in place. The decisions taken on the final form of the guidance are set out in a decisions document, and the final guidance itself can be found here . The consultation was available online for 21 days and received 213 responses.

Original consultation

Summary

Consultation proposals for gathering evidence of student performance in GCSE, AS, A level, Project and AEA qualifications to support qualification system resilience in 2023.

This consultation ran from

Consultation description

We welcomed the return of exams and other formal assessments in summer 2022, for the first time since 2019. Exams and other formal assessments are the best and fairest way of assessing what students know and can do. That's why it was so important that we got back to students taking them in 2022, and that this continues next year.

The national closure of schools or cancellation of exams - necessitating the use of alternative assessment arrangements - is now very unlikely. The government does not expect to ever be in the situation again where exams do not go ahead, but good public policy means having contingency, even for extremely unlikely scenarios.

It is important to learn lessons from the past 3 years. We have taken into account feedback received on the arrangements in place in 2022 and we propose to put in place arrangements which will build resilience in the exam system next year. We know that most schools and colleges have robust and effective assessment activities in place to monitor students' progress and prepare them for exams, such as mock exams, and these are well established.

This document, prepared jointly by the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofqual, invites views on guidance to schools and colleges about gathering assessment evidence to support resilience in the exams system in the unlikely event it is necessary to use that evidence to inform Teacher Assessed Grades (TAGs). It is designed to allow schools and colleges to determine arrangements to gather evidence that align with their normal arrangements for preparing students for exams.

The proposals in this consultation apply to GCSEs, AS, A levels, Project Qualifications and the Advanced Extension Award (AEA) in mathematics.

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Ensuring the resilience of the qualifications system in 2023: GCSE, AS, A level, Project and AEA

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Consultation proposals for gathering evidence of student performance in GCSE, AS, A level, Project and AEA qualifications to support qualification system resilience in 2023.

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EDUQAS: GCSE Religious Studies Route A: Assessment and Classroom Practice

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EDUQAS: GCSE Religious Studies Route A: Assessment and Classroom Practice

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9th January 2023
16:00-18:00
Online

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NATRE: Spirited Arts & Poetry Competition

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NATRE: Spirited Arts & Poetry Competition

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Deadline: Monday 31 July 2023

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Get involved in the 2023 competition!

Join hundreds of schools from around the world taking part in this year's Spirited Arts competition! We welcome entries in (almost!) any art form your pupils can think of, including:

Winning entries will provide a good response to one of the 5 themes, and judges will be asking 'Is it original?' 'Is it well-crafted?' And (most importantly!) 'Is it excellent RE?'

Pupils can enter individually, in pairs or groups, or as whole class, year, or school entries. We have also been pleased to receive entries from whole community groups in previous years.

The annual competition starts at the beginning of every school year and runs through the spring and summer terms. All entries must be received before Monday 31 July 2023.

Many schools host their own Spirited Arts competition and send their 10 winning entries into our international competition. What a great way to engage all your teachers and pupils and raise the profile of RE in your school! To enable teachers to incorporate the art competition into their RE lessons, many schools have a 'Spirited Arts' unit of work or a special learning RE/arts week.

Many schools have a 'Spirited Arts' unit of work or a special learning RE/arts week.
Use our classroom-ready PowerPoints to inspire your pupils
Don't forget to check out our supporting resources & ideas section below - including a FREE webinar for both Primary and Secondary teachers.
Ready to enter your pupils' work? Complete the online submission form here.
Themes - Now with 6 themes to choose from!

We have some exciting new themes for you and your pupils for the 2023 competition! We are delighted to continue our partnership with the Jo Cox Foundation for our "We have far more in common with each other than that which divides us." theme.

1. "We have far more in common with each other than that which divides us."

The quote from Jo Cox MP introduces this theme. Are we all one human race, despite our differences and divisions? We are all different, and all religions are different - but are we all the same too? Can we all be united? What holds humanity together? Is it faith? Hope? Love? Music? Sport? What threatens to tear us apart - racism, sexism, hatred, bigotry? How can we conquer the forces of division? You should use specific religious ideas and quotes. Make a work of art that shows what unites us, brings us together, joins humans as one people and expresses our harmony. Use the disciplines of theology, but also of psychology and sociology to question + create your responses.

2. Green faith, green future? ('God's good earth')

Many religions thank God for nature, from Aardvarks to Zebras, via cats, elephants and rabbits. But the climate crisis deepens. Are we spoiling God's good earth? Can we save it - and ourselves - in time from the threats of climate change? In this theme, learners are invited to explore ideas and beliefs about the natural world, animals and the environment, human responsibility for the earth and ways of praying about climate justice. Great work will show some originality: the globe in God's hands won't win! Challenge pupils to use scripture quotations thoughtfully, but also the methods of scientific enquiry and moral study to develop deep answers and good writing to go with stunning images.

3. Where is God today?

Pupils who are atheists, agnostics and believers in God can all respond to this theme. Express your ideas about the search for God. Where's God? In your heart? In prayer? In the temple or the universe? Or is she hiding? Is he not there at all? Unreal? Imaginary? A cruel joke? Looking for God, searching for him or her, matters to many, but how are we doing in finding God? Would you search with google or a 'god-detector'? Is God on Instagram, TikTok or whatsapp? Can God be found by prayer or by looking among the world's suffering people? This popular 'Art in Heaven' theme produces great work where pupils use ideas from religions clearly: The Jewish Psalms 42 and 43 are where it starts - there are parallels in many scriptures. Use theological reflection as well as philosophical argument to make great work.

4. Faith in action, Values in action

Faith without work is dead, it is said. Hypocrites say one thing and do the opposite. If you really believe what you claim, you might be willing to die for it - or live for it. Pupils can consider religious exemplars of faith from Guru Nanak, the Muslim prophets, Jewish patriarchs and Biblical 'action figures'. They can also think about their own values and dearest beliefs: how do these values and beliefs make a difference? Start with this sentence: 'My beliefs and values make a difference because...' Use quotes from wisdom sources in your work! This is a great theme for examination students, who are always asked: 'what is the impact of this belief?' How would they like to answer?

5. Sacred Space and Holy Buildings

Mosque and Mandir, Church and Chapel, Gurdwara and Synagogue: spaces for wonder and awe, for ritual and symbol, for believers and visitors. This theme could be a space for photography, collage, group work or reflections on class trips to places of worship. But then some people's sacred space is on the beach, in the mountains, by the riverside. And for others, it is in the city, among the people who carry heavy loads, even in war-torn space - can God be experienced there? This theme will be popular with primary class groups who have been on a trip, but 14-19s with a sacred space of their own can win too. Can your work on key texts from religious studies in your explanations? So much the better.

6. NEW! "All God's Creatures?"
This additional theme has been kindly sponsored by Animal Interfaith Alliance and Veganism in Education (VinE)
Do animals belong to God? Are they part of a divine plan? Do animals have souls? The beauty and sheer awesomeness of non-human animals with whom we share planet Earth is celebrated in many of the world's religions. Some worldviews see all living beings as interconnected, yet others emphasise the separateness and superiority of humans over other animals. Animals play a huge part in all our lives, whether we realise or not. How humans interact with other animals and the natural world impacts on all living beings and the planet. This theme invites exploration of ideas and beliefs about non-human animals. Great work will show originality and flare coming from deep consideration of the issues. Challenge learners to engage thoughtfully with scripture, philosophy, and scientific enquiry to write an inspiring passage to accompany stunning images. We are delighted to partner with the Animals Interfaith Alliance (AIA) and Veganism in Education (VinE) to bring you this theme.
All themes are suited to both primary and secondary pupils: teachers are advised to share them with RE classes in age appropriate ways, and make sure that pupils can respond at their own level, whether they are 4 or 14, 8 or 18. Click here to download the list of themes and full competition details.
Who can enter?

We welcome entries from pupils of all abilities and any school type, from age 3 right up to age 19. We can only accept 10 entries per school - so be sure to whittle them down to your 10 best.

Pupils can create entries individually, in pairs or groups, or as whole class, year or school entries. We have also been pleased to receive entries from whole community groups on previous years.

Prizes & judging

Judging by RE Today Advisers and students, takes place in August and winners are announced in the new academic year.

We aim to award 5 prizes for each theme (25 in total) but may award more if we have very strong entries for some themes. Entries are split into Key Stages for judging, and we hope to have at least one winner per key stage where possible.

£25 prizes will be awarded to a selection of winners. Exceptional work from 14-19 students may win a prize of up to £100. Sometimes we are able to make a slightly larger award for a class or group entry.

Prizes are typically:

Individual pupil winners - £20 Amazon voucher

Paired winners - £10 Amazon voucher each

Group/Class/Year/School winners - Prizes decided on a case by case basis, but are often a £50-£100 voucher or cheque for the school to choose appropriate prizes.

All schools whose pupil(s) produce winning work will also receive a prize (usually a voucher to spend with RE Today, NATRE, or a copy of a best-selling publication from RE Today).

How to enter

There are lots of ways to run the competition in your school (see the supporting resources and ideas section for inspiration!). You need to select your 10 best entries to send in. You can choose a single theme for pupils to work on, or allow them to respond to any of the 5 themes. Your 10 entries do not all need to be from the same theme.

Entries should consist of a piece of art, be it physical, literal or using technology (almost all mediums are welcome) and a corresponding write up of no more than 400 words. The write up should support the main piece in responding to the theme and showcase the brilliant RE your pupils are doing. The commentary is a large element of judging, and authentic commentaries demonstrating pupil knowledge and interpretation always rank highly. All entries being sent to us need to be registered through our online submission form. This builds a list of all the school and pupil information we need to run the competition smoothly and send out prizes and certificates.

If your pupils have produced a piece or work larger than A3 (including sculptures) please send us some high-quality photographs of the work, as we are unable to accommodate large entries at our office.

Musical, dance and drama entries can be sent via email, or sent on a USB or CD.
You can send your entries by:
Post

When you complete the online submission form, an address label including your unique reference will be available to print.
Please send your entries to:
Spirited Arts

NATRE

5-6 Imperial Court

12 Sovereign Road

Birmingham

B30 3FH
Please make sure your reference number is on the envelope and all pieces of artwork and the supporting commentaries.
Write ups should be attached to the corresponding artwork (ideally stapled or glued to the reverse) as it is very difficult for us to match them up ourselves.

Each piece of work MUST be labelled with the pupil name, age, theme and school details.

Email

Entries can be sent digitally to competition@natre.org.uk - this is particularly useful for digital work such as videos or pieces of music.

Please ensure all file names have the pupil name, age and theme they are entering. For example:

John Smith - age 7 - Where is God

As we receive 1000's of entries it is very difficult to work with files that are not named with these details.

Click here to download full competition details, including an entry checklist.

Supporting resources & ideas

Ideas for running the competition in your school:

· Many schools build the competition into a scheme/unit of work, allowing time to develop knowledge and ideas around a theme before completing the unit by creating their entries

· Other schools have run a RE week or day in their school that concludes with creating work for the competition

· The competition can be used as a fun end of term activity, or homework project

· Use the competition as a great way to raise the profile of RE in your school! Make displays of your pupil's work, and consider asking other members of teaching staff, SLT or your head teacher to help do the preliminary judging when choosing your best 10 entries to send in

· Some schools run exhibitions of all their pupils work and open them to parents and the wider community. Some even have attendees select the best 10 entries

FREE webinar & classroom ready PPTs:

Now in its 18th year, Spirited Arts has attracted over 450,000 participants (averaging 25,000 per year!) since 2004, with 3,000 entries being sent in to NATRE each year for judging. Hundreds of UK schools get involved, and we get entries coming from as far a-field as Hong Kong, Australia, Thailand and Bahrain.

We hope you're excited to be involved this year! We are looking forward to another year of wonderful, inspirational and unique work from your pupils.

Please get in contact if you have further questions by emailing competition@natre.org.uk.

Have you entered before? We'd love to hear from you.
As we approach the 20th year of the competition in 2023, we want to evaluate and assess the impact the competition has had and continues to have in classroom in the UK and around the world. This survey will take approx. 5 minutes to complete, and your input will be invaluable to us as we look to the future.
Complete the short evaluation here.

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Enter Spirited Arts 2023 | NATRE competition

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Join hundreds of schools from around the world taking part in this year's Spirited Arts competition! We welcome entries in (almost!) any art form your pupils can think of, including: Winning entries will provide a good response to one of the 5 themes, and judges will be asking 'Is it original?'

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Sign-Up & Access available until: 31st December 2022

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GCSE Religious Studies: Mark scheme guidance and application

Course summary

This AQA on-demand course will give expert instruction from a senior AQA examiner in how to apply mark schemes to key question types as well as providing the opportunity to take part in marking activities.

As part of our AQA support offer to teachers, you can access the module as many times as you wish until 31 March 2022.

Please note that this course does not contain any information about assessment for Summer 2022.
Your centre number is required to access all AQA courses.
Course reference

RELGOE3 - use this in communications with us.

Course description

Improve your confidence in awarding marks accurately.

Gain a better understanding of mark scheme application.

Identify typical features and characteristics of responses.

Practise and receive feedback on student response examples.

Suitable for

All teachers who need additional guidance in marking GCSE Religious Studies.

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This AQA on-demand course will give expert instruction from a senior AQA examiner in how to apply mark schemes to key question types as well as providing the opportunity to take part in marking activities. As part of our AQA support offer to teachers, you can access the module as many times as you wish until 31 March 2022.

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A-level and GCSE RS: Feedback on the 2022 exams 

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A-level and GCSE RS: Feedback on the 2022 exams 

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GCSE: 18th & 20th October + 1st & 3rd November 2022
A-level: 17th October 2022
16:00-18:00
Online

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Browse our qualifications support, teaching skills, subject expertise and leadership and management courses for primary and secondary teachers.

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Ofqual: Arrangements for 2022 to 2023 NEAs and Exams

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Ofqual: Arrangements for 2022 to 2023 NEAs and Exams

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- Ofqual confirms the usual arrangements for NEA, fieldwork and practical science are in place for 2023.
- Ofqual will ask exam boards to look carefully at the design of the exam timetable for next year, to see if the increased spacing between subjects in the exam timetable should be retained.

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Applies to England

In 2021 and 2022, Ofqual made a range of adjustments to the arrangements for NEA and fieldwork and practical science requirements in some GCSE, AS and A level subjects to respond to public health measures. Given that they are no longer in force, for the 2023 cohort Ofqual confirms that, as planned, the usual arrangements for NEA, fieldwork and practical science are now in place.

For the 2022 cohort, the Department for Education determined that there should be a choice of topics in GCSE English literature, history and ancient history and a choice of content in GCSE geography as part of a range of adaptations to GCSE, AS and A levels for this year. For 2023, the Department for Education confirms the return to full subject content coverage for those GCSE subjects.

For other qualifications, including vocational and technical qualifications taught alongside or instead of GCSEs, AS and A levels, a range of adaptations were permitted in academic year 2021 to 2022. Awarding organisations decided which adaptations were appropriate for their qualifications in accordance with Ofqual's Vocational and Technical Qualifications Contingency Regulatory Framework (VCRF). Some adaptations were in response to public health restrictions. Given that public health restrictions are no longer in place, these adaptations are no longer necessary for the academic year 2022 to 2023 onwards.

This means that schools and colleges have the information they need to plan their teaching of the required content and to provide non-exam assessments. The Department for Education and Ofqual will continue to monitor the path and impact of the pandemic and evaluate the delivery of arrangements this year, including the provision of exam aids, such as formulae sheets, and advance information to support students' revision, before finalising 2023 arrangements. Our intention is to return to the carefully designed and well-established pre-pandemic assessment arrangements as quickly as possible, given they are the best and fairest way of assessing what students know and can do.

For GCSEs, AS and A levels, Ofqual will, as planned, consider the approach to grading for 2023 in light of outcomes in 2022. Ofqual will also ask exam boards to look carefully at the design of the exam timetable for next year in the light of experience this year, to see if the increased spacing between subjects in the exam timetable should be retained.

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Subject content and assessment arrangements in the academic year 2022 to 2023

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Skip to main content We use some essential cookies to make this website work. We'd like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.

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Diocese of Norwich: RE Local Leaders Forum

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Diocese of Norwich: RE Local Leaders Forum

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Monday 17th October 2022

13:30-16:00

Diocesan House, Norwich,

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Diocese of Norwich: RE Local Leaders Forum 

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Diocese of Norwich: RE Local Leaders Forum 

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Monday 30th  January 2023

13:30-16:00
Diocesan House, Norwich

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Julian Teaching School Hub: NPQLT 2022/23

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Julian Teaching School Hub: NPQLT 2022/23

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Ofqual: Podcast on Marking and grading in summer 2022

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Ofqual: Podcast on Marking and grading in summer 2022

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Published: 13th May 2022

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Ofqual Podcast: Marking and grading in summer 2022

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Ofsted: Inspection Data Summary Report (IDSR) - Updated guidance on report

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Ofsted: Inspection Data Summary Report (IDSR) - Updated guidance on report

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School inspection data summary report (IDSR) guide

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This guide provides an overview of the inspection data summary report (IDSR) for primary and secondary schools, including schools with a sixth form and gives guidance on interpreting the data.

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The Hockerill Foundation:  Grants to support the education and training of teachers or for research and development in religious education

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The Hockerill Foundation:  Grants to support the education and training of teachers or for research and development in religious education

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Deadline: 31st March 2022

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Our role in education

The Charity's main emphasis is to make grants in the field of education in three main areas:

Individual grants to support the education and training of teachers

Grants to organisations to support teachers and research and development in religious education

Grants to develop the church's educational work in the dioceses of Chelmsford and St Albans.

Foundation news

Individual and Corporate Grants in 2022

The application process for Grants for the 2022-23 Academic year is now open. Please go to the appropriate pages on our website.
...read more on grants
What is the Hockerill Foundation?

The History

The Hockerill Educational Foundation was established as a charity in 1977, following the closure of Hockerill College of Education. The Charity's main emphasis is to make grants in the field of education.

What kinds of grants are available?

The foundation offers three type of grants:

To individuals,

To organisations and corporate bodies, and

To religious bodies within the dioceses of Chelmsford and St. Albans

How do I apply for funding?

The main purpose of this website is to facilitate the application process for funding from the Hockerill Foundation.

Before applying for funding make sure you fulfill elegibility requirements set in the Grants page.

...how to apply

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The Charity's main emphasis is to make grants in the field of education in three main areas: Individual grants to support the education and training of teachers Grants to organisations to support teachers and research and development in religious education Grants to develop the church's educational work in the dioceses of Chelmsford and St Albans.

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Keswick Hall: Grants for projects that concentrate on RE in Secondary/Further Education

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Keswick Hall: Grants for projects that concentrate on RE in Secondary/Further Education

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Deadline: May 31st 2022 for consideration by Trustees in July 2022
Deadline: September 30th 2022 for consideration by Trustees in November 2022

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Keswick Hall Trust will consider applications for grants from organisations or individuals in the following major areas:

Projects that concentrate on RE in Secondary/Further Education

Projects that concentrate on Research and Development of RE

Projects that meet the overall objects of the trust [these can be found on the home page of this website]

To apply for a grant download the appropriate application form and submit it to the trustees for consideration.
PDF Documents: Personal Grant Application Form Organisation Grant Application Form Word Documents: Personal Grant Application Form Organisation Grant Application Form Dates for the Submission of Grant Applications:
Organisation and Individual Grants:
January 31st 2022 for consideration by Trustees in March 2022
May 31st 2022 for consideration by Trustees in July 2022
September 30th 2022 for consideration by Trustees in November 2022

For further information email admin@keswickhalltrust.org.uk

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Keswick Hall Trust will consider applications for grants from organisations or individuals in the following major areas: Projects that concentrate on RE in Secondary/Further Education Projects that concentrate on Research and Development of RE Projects that meet the overall objects of the trust [these can be found on the home page of this website] To apply for a grant download the appropriate application form and submit it to the trustees for consideration.

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09:30 - 11:30 or 11:30 - 13:00 or 14:00 - 15:30
11 July 2022
Online

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11/07/2022

Date: 11 July 2022
Location: Online
Trainer: Stephen Pett
Cost: £210 (£60 for community schools)
( Discounts available for NATRE members! See below.)
BOOKING DEADLINE 4 JULY 2022
Join Stephen Pett for our virtual day course. Packed with the same knowledge and interactivity of a webinar, this training time gives more room for discussion, real-life examples with in-depth explanations and the usual wealth of expertise.

A day course introducing a new and substantial resource for teaching Christianity for 11-14s, laying the foundations for excellent learning at 14+/GCSE and A Level.
This day course will provide you with an overview of the Understanding Christianity approach, units of work strategies and activities, as well as specific classroom resources to support learning.

Teachers attending this course will:
* Be able to use this excellent and innovative resource package for better learning about Christianity 11-16
* Consider the place of concepts, creativity, theology and textual learning in RE through exploring inspiring
examples of teaching and learning ideas
* Develop their own skills as a teacher of RE by using this major new, fully-resourced approach.

Are you a community school? If so we have good news, thanks to grant funding we are offering you £150 subsidy on the price which means you pay just £60!

*For the purposes of this subsidy, we define a community school as a school or academy that does not receive influence (financial or operational) from any religious organisation such as the Church of England. A good indicator is, if your school has Church/CofE (or equivalent) in the name, you will not be eligible for this subsidy.

The course will be split into three sessions, the day will have breaks in between - plenty of time to keep yourself refreshed and your notebook pages flicking.

Time:Three live sessions will be held, giving you the opportunity to interact with our RE expert:
09:30 - 11:30
11:30 - 13:00
14:00 - 15:30

(There will be short breaks within each session).

NATRE member discounts
Bronze members get £30 off, Silver members get £50 off, Gold members get £100 off, Platinum members go for FREE!

HOW WE USE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU AND RECIPIENTS OF YOUR INFORMATION: We will use your information in performance of your contract with us and the provision of our services to you including our legitimate interests, for further details please view our full privacy policy and your rights at https://www.natre.org.uk/privacy/

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Understanding Christianity - Secondary (Online)

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Date: 11 July 2022 Location: Online Trainer: Stephen Pett Cost: £210 (£60 for community schools) ( Discounts available for NATRE members! See below.) BOOKING DEADLINE 4 JULY 2022 Join Stephen Pett for our virtual day course.

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NATRE: GCSE RS – Better thinking, better writing, better results

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NATRE: GCSE RS – Better thinking, better writing, better results

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13:00-16:00

19th May 2022
Online

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19/05/2022

Date: 19 April, 1-4pm
Location: Online
Trainer: Angela Hill
Cost: £150 (discounts available for NATRE members)
BOOKING DEADLINE 12 April 2022
The course runs for 2 x 75 minutes. The first session starts at 9:30 am, followed by a break, with the second session starting at 12 noon. As this is slightly shorter than our day courses, we are delighted to run this for a special rate of £150.

It is designed for all teachers of RE from NQT to subject leader, in all kinds of school. Delegates will receive access to digital resources online.

Can't join us on the day?

If you are teaching or have important meetings in between the course, the recordings will be available for up to two weeks (only) afterwards.

NATRE member discounts
Bronze members get £30 off, Silver members get £50 off, Gold members get £100 off, Platinum members go for FREE!
Due to social distancing guidelines we will be hosting this course online. Click here for full terms and conditions.
HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION: We will use your information to fulfil your contract with us including exercising our legitimate interest to keep you up-to-date with our products and services. For further details please view our full privacy policy and your rights at www.natre.org.uk/privacy/

BOOK ONLINE

Book your place now! When you submit this form, you will receive a letter of confirmation and an invoice.

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GCSE RS - Better thinking, better writing, better results

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Date: 19 April, 1-4pm Location: Online Trainer: Angela Hill Cost: £150 (discounts available for NATRE members) BOOKING DEADLINE 12 April 2022 The course runs for 2 x 75 minutes. The first session starts at 9:30 am, followed by a break, with the second session starting at 12 noon.

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Norfolk SACRE Conference – RE Conference

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Norfolk SACRE Conference – RE Conference

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09:00 - 16:30
8th July 2022
The Enterprise Centre, UEA

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£50 per delegate, book before 1st June 2022 to receive your 10% discount!
Norfolk SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) in association with Norfolk County Council is delighted to invite you to the Religious Education Conference taking place this June.
This conference has been designed to inspire teachers of Religious Education with a range of speakers including teachers and education providers from Norfolk and beyond. All designed to facilitate engagement with the Norfolk Agreed Syllabus 2019. Key highlights include:

Keynote speaker Lat Blaylock

A range of speakers including teachers and education providers from Norfolk and beyond

Facilitated engagement with the Norfolk Agreed Syllabus 2019

Unique peer to peer networking opportunities

Panel discussion with the opportunity to ask your questions.

Conference Agenda For details of the workshops please visit:
09.00 - 09.30 Arrival and Registration 09.30 - 09.40 Welcome 09.40 - 10.20 Keynote Address 10.30 - 11.00 Refreshments and Visiting Exhibition 11.05 - 12.00 Workshop One - Academic Focus 12.05 - 13.00 Workshop Two - Living Religions and Worldviews Focus 13.00 - 14.00 Lunch and Networking 14.05 - 15.00 Workshop Three - Ways into teaching R.E. 15.00 - 15.20 Refreshments and Visiting Exhibition 15.20 - 15.55 Panel Questions and Discussion 16.00 - 16.30 Keynote - Call to Arms! 16.30 - Close
Speakers include:
Lat Blaylock - National RE Advisor & editor of RE Today Magazine Janet Marshall - Teacher, former Head of Schools & Family Learning at Norwich Cathedral, school workshop & CPD provider Dr Kathryn Wright - CEO of Culham St. Gabriel's Trust, Board member of the Board of the REC England and Wales John Turner - Professor of Science (Emeritus), Humanist School Speaker & Chaplain &Chair of Norfolk Humanists John Semmens - SACRE Chair, Junior school RE Lead, Philosophy specialist & curriculum writer Marsha Parker - Board Of Deputies of British Jews accredited Judaism Presenter, Teacher & CPD trainer Deborah Carpenter - Jewish educator, workshop provider & lead for education at Norwich Synagogue Nikki McGee - Secondary Subject Specialist Lead for Religion & Philosophy at Inspiration Trust Matt Lane - Primary RE lead whose school was recently awarded REQM Gold and writer Chris Allen - Diocesan of Norwich RE Advisor, SIAMS Inspector & REQM Assessor Cat Kirkland - Education Officer (Teacher Training) at the Holocaust Educational Trust Gayatri Verma - Teacher & Hinduism representative to Norfolk SACRE Simon Oldfield - Secondary Head of RE and Norfolk LAS Syllabus Trainer
https://www.s4s.norfolk.gov.uk/Article/99507

Tickets: £50 pp. (10% discount if booked by 1st June - discount will be applied after checkout). We would recommend that (to avoid incurring costs) cancellation only be actioned in circumstances where an alternative delegate cannot be substituted. If you need to cancel a place on an event or course, you must do so in writing to
Your ticket includes:

Lunch

Tea and coffee

Parking

Access to all workshops

Panel discussion with the opportunity to ask your questions.

Cancellation process and fees
For cancellations to bookings that are twenty (20) working days or more before the event or course, a nominal fee of £20 will be levied per booking to cover administration costs. Cancellations to bookings that occur between twenty (20) working days and five (5) working days before an event or course, will incur a nominal fee of £50 per booking. Cancellations made less than five (5) working days before an event or course, will incur the full cost of the course or (in the case of free courses, or those included as part of a package of other services) an administration fee of £50. landitraining@norfolk.gov.uk. The date of cancellation shall be the date on which the written notice of cancellation is received.
Teachers of Religious Education, SLT and Governors

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Norfolk SACRE Conference - Religious Education Conference | Norfolk Services for Schools

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£50 per delegate, book before 1st June 2022 to receive your 10% discount! Norfolk SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) in association with Norfolk County Council is delighted to invite you to the Religious Education Conference taking place this June.

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A blend of flexible online learning, online discussion, virtual workshops and face to face workshops, for a few hours study each week over 12 months. This is followed by an assessment where you will complete a 1500-word case study assessment to demonstrate your understanding of real leadership and change.

Our online modules guide you and your colleagues through understanding and implementing effective approaches to people-powered school improvement.

This completely new Specialist NPQ has an evidence-based curriculum design, connecting you to the latest research and best practice. Our research-rich course covers all of the core content in the government's Framework for this qualification. It will help you to:

Understand the evidence underpinning the Early Career Framework, effective teaching and how pupils learn, and how to implement that within classrooms

Weaving together curriculum, assessment and adaptive teaching to lead coherent improvement

Professionally developing others, creating change and supporting school culture

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National Professional Qualification in Leading Teaching (NPQLT) - Teacher Development Trust

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A blend of flexible online learning, online discussion, virtual workshops and face to face workshops, for a few hours study each week over 12 months. This is followed by an assessment where you will complete a 1500-word case study assessment to demonstrate your understanding of real leadership and change.

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JCQ: An introduction to becoming an examiner or marker

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JCQ: An introduction to becoming an examiner or marker

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Exam boards are offering an opportunity to join examiner teams in several subjects for this summer’s exam season. Examining gives you a chance to network with other subject experts, gain insight into the latest approaches to how your subject is assessed and earn extra income for approximately three weeks of work.

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Join all the other teachers who help students receive recognition for their learning, and also enable them to progress to the next stage of their development, by becoming an examiner. You'll gain a better understanding of the subject specification and how the examination system works.

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JCQ: Guidance for centres managing exams - June 2022 Series

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JCQ: Guidance for centres managing exams - June 2022 Series

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Published: 29th April 2022

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HET: Outreach Events - Holocaust Workshop

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HET: Outreach Events - Holocaust Workshop

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In the past year, more than 200 organisations partnered with the Holocaust Educational Trust through our nation-wide free Outreach Programme. Survivor testimony and sharing family experiences is at the heart of what we do. Hearing from a witness allows us to put a human face to one of the darkest periods of history. Please read below to find out how your group can work with us, and then complete a request form.

Read brief biographies of some of the Holocaust survivors who share their testimony.

Information for Schools

Online Testimony

We can arrange an online testimony session for your group with a Holocaust survivor or a member of the Second Generation. All sessions are led by a trained facilitator. The meeting will include 45 minutes of testimony and an interactive Q+A. The Trust facilitator will also lead students in a quick reflective activity.

Educator Workshops

A trained Educator from the Trust can visit your school to deliver free, interactive classroom sessions. Workshops are available for students in year 6 and above.

Our 1 hour workshops cover subjects such as pre-war Jewish life; Anti-Jewish laws in the 1930s; Ghettos and concentration camps; How should we remember the Holocaust? For younger years, we look at case studies of the Kindertransport and rescue.

To book your school onto our Outreach Programme, please complete a request form.

Information for Non-Schools

In-person Testimony

If you are an adult group, we are now able to arrange an in-person testimony event with a Holocaust survivor or member of the Second Generation. Please complete a request form to book your Outreach session.

We are also able to offer an online session if this is preferred.

Corporate Outreach

Please take a look at our information regarding Corporate Outreach for workplaces and businesses.

Outreach Events

Take a look at our upcoming Outreach Events for more chances to hear testimony and to get involved with the Outreach Programme.

Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any questions about our Outreach Programme.

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In the past year, more than 200 organisations partnered with the Holocaust Educational Trust through our nation-wide free Outreach Programme. Survivor testimony and sharing family experiences is at the heart of what we do. Hearing from a witness allows us to put a human face to one of the darkest periods of history.

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An Approach to Teaching about the Holocaust

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An Approach to Teaching about the Holocaust

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Online
16:00-17:30, Tuesday 17 May 2022
or
11:00-12:00, Thursday 19 May 2022

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Our online training sessions are open to primary and secondary school teachers and trainees.
Introduction to the Holocaust Educational Trust
This 90-minute session will introduce teachers and trainees to the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust and to the pedagogical guidelines which underpin our work. The session will provide a basic introduction to Holocaust history, and to our primary and secondary schemes of work.

Spring Term 2021

Tuesday 9 March (11.00 - 12.30)
Friday 12 March (16:00 - 17.30)
Tuesday 13 April (11.00 - 12.30)
Thursday 15 April (16:00 - 17.30)
An Approach to Teaching about the Holocaust
This additional 90-minute session builds on our introductory session to explore our teaching resources and their use in the classroom. Participants must have completed Introduction to the Holocaust Educational Trust before joining this session.

Spring Term 2021

Tuesday 16 March (16:00 - 17.30)
Thursday 18 March (11.00 - 12.30)
Tuesday 20 April (16:00 - 17.30)
Thursday 22 April (11.00 - 12.30)
Dates for May and June 2021 will be announced in the coming months
Participation in our online training programme is free of charge. To sign up to one or more of our online training sessions please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. All sessions will take place on Zoom. You will need a computer with a camera and microphone to participate.

If you are leading, or are part of, a larger group and would like to organise one or more 90-minute sessions for colleagues from your school or training institution please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to request a Bespoke Workshop.

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Our online training sessions are open to primary and secondary school teachers and trainees. Introduction to the Holocaust Educational Trust This 90-minute session will introduce teachers and trainees to the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust and to the pedagogical guidelines which underpin our work.

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Diocese of Norwich: RE Local Leaders Forum

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Diocese of Norwich: RE Local Leaders Forum

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13:30-16:00
17th October 2022
Diocesan House, Norwich

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Eventbrite - Diocese of Norwich - Schools & Academies presents RE Local Leaders Forum - Monday, 17 October 2022 at Diocesan House. Find event and ticket information.

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Diocese of Norwich: Understanding Christianity

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Diocese of Norwich: Understanding Christianity

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13:15-17:15

Monday 6 June 2022,

Monday 13 June 2022,

Monday 20 June 2022,

Monday 27 June 2022

Diocesan House, Norwich

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Diocese of Norwich: RE Local Leaders Forum

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Diocese of Norwich: RE Local Leaders Forum

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13:30 - 16:00
4th July 2022
Online

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re local leaders forum with chris allen & katy mckay

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re local leaders forum with chris allen & katy mckay tickets

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RE Local Leaders Forum with Chris Allen & Katy McKay

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Eventbrite - Diocese of Norwich - Schools & Academies presents RE Local Leaders Forum with Chris Allen & Katy McKay - Monday, 5 October 2020 | Monday, 4 July 2022 - Find event and ticket information.

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Ofqual: Updated with additional information for teachers on collecting evidence for use in contingency arrangements

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Ofqual: Updated with additional information for teachers on collecting evidence for use in contingency arrangements

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Updated: 25th March 2022

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Recent updates regarding regulated qualifications.

Delivery of vocational and technical qualification results for 2024 and beyond

Ofqual has announced arrangements to ensure the timely delivery of results for students taking vocational and technical qualifications in 2024 and beyond.

Dr Jo Saxton, Chief Regulator, has also written to all schools and colleges in England to explain the arrangements in more detail, and how they differ from those implemented in 2023.

GCSE, Level 1, Level 1/2 and Level 2 vocational and technical qualifications results, summer 2023

Ofqual has published 2 guides to today's (24 August 2023) exam results:

These guides summarise the headline figures across England and reflect Ofqual's decision to return to pre-pandemic grading this summer.

You can explore the results in more depth - including breakdowns by centre type, subject and region - using Ofqual's interactive visualisations.

Ofqual has also summarised the key data in infographics for GCSE and Level 1, Level 1/2 and Level 2 VTQ.

AS, A level and Level 3 vocational and technical qualifications results, summer 2023

Ofqual has published 2 guides to today's (17 August 2023) exam results:

These guides summarise the headline figures across England and reflect Ofqual's decision to return to pre-pandemic grading this summer.

You can explore the results in more depth - including breakdowns by centre type, subject and region - using Ofqual's interactive visualisations.

Ofqual has also summarised the key data in infographics for AS and A level and Level 3 VTQ.

Industrial action

The Department for Education has issued guidance that recommends that schools should prioritise the running of examinations and assessments on any strike days, and should review their contingency plans to enable this to happen.

Schools, colleges and other exam centres should speak to the relevant awarding organisations if they are expecting any disruption that might affect the sitting of exams and assessments.

Replacement certificates

Ofqual does not hold copies of your certificates - we can't tell you your grade or provide replacements. Certificates are held by the exam board you sat your qualification with. If you don't know which exam board you took your qualification with, ask your school. If your school don't know you will need to ask each exam board to do a search for you - they will charge you for this.

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Ofqual: Coping with exam pressure - a guide for students

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Ofqual: Coping with exam pressure - a guide for students

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Updated: 3rd March 2022

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Coping with exam pressure - a guide for students

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Updated: February 2022

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16 to 18 accountability headline measures

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Guide for schools, colleges and local authorities on how the 16 to 18 performance measures are calculated.

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Secondary accountability measures Guidance 2022

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Secondary accountability measures Guidance 2022

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Updated: February 2022

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Information for schools about secondary school accountability measures, including Progress 8 and Attainment 8.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

This document explains how secondary accountability measures are calculated. It also gives more information about announced policies that apply to accountability measures for the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

This information is for:

senior leaders working in secondary schools and trusts, including maintained schools, academies, alternative provision, free schools and special schools

independent schools or colleges with 14 to 16 provision seeking information on secondary accountability measures

governors and trustees

local authorities

It applies to:

local-authority-maintained schools

academies

free schools

further education colleges with 14 to 16 provision

Find school and college performance data.

KS4 qualifications, discount codes and point scores for the school performance measures.

A short video explaining Progress 8 is also available:
Progress 8 video

Thank you for your feedback

Report a problem with this page

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Secondary accountability measures (including Progress 8 and Attainment 8)

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Information for schools about secondary school accountability measures, including Progress 8 and Attainment 8.

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NATRE: GCSE RS – Better thinking, better writing, better results

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NATRE: GCSE RS – Better thinking, better writing, better results

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£150
Online
09:30-13:30
19th April 2022

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19/05/2022

Date: 19 April, 1-4pm
Location: Online
Trainer: Angela Hill
Cost: £150 (discounts available for NATRE members)
BOOKING DEADLINE 12 April 2022
The course runs for 2 x 75 minutes. The first session starts at 9:30 am, followed by a break, with the second session starting at 12 noon. As this is slightly shorter than our day courses, we are delighted to run this for a special rate of £150.

It is designed for all teachers of RE from NQT to subject leader, in all kinds of school. Delegates will receive access to digital resources online.

Can't join us on the day?

If you are teaching or have important meetings in between the course, the recordings will be available for up to two weeks (only) afterwards.

NATRE member discounts
Bronze members get £30 off, Silver members get £50 off, Gold members get £100 off, Platinum members go for FREE!
Due to social distancing guidelines we will be hosting this course online. Click here for full terms and conditions.
HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION: We will use your information to fulfil your contract with us including exercising our legitimate interest to keep you up-to-date with our products and services. For further details please view our full privacy policy and your rights at www.natre.org.uk/privacy/

BOOK ONLINE

Book your place now! When you submit this form, you will receive a letter of confirmation and an invoice.

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GCSE RS - Better thinking, better writing, better results

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Date: 19 April, 1-4pm Location: Online Trainer: Angela Hill Cost: £150 (discounts available for NATRE members) BOOKING DEADLINE 12 April 2022 The course runs for 2 x 75 minutes. The first session starts at 9:30 am, followed by a break, with the second session starting at 12 noon.

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Diocese of Salisbury: CREative and REinspiring Annual RE Conference

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Diocese of Salisbury: CREative and REinspiring Annual RE Conference

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£50 + VAT
Online
09:30-15:30
31st March 2022

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PSA Subscription Course: CREative and REinspiring Annual RE Conference - 31/03/22

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An RE Conference filled with inspirational RE workshops – open to all who are passionate about RE – Don’t miss it!

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NATRE: 12 ideas for excellence in 11-14 RE 

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NATRE: 12 ideas for excellence in 11-14 RE 

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Online
£40
15:45-17:45
24th March 2022

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29/03/2022
BOOKING DEADLINE: 28 MARCH 2022
this highly practical webinar will pick up and demonstrate some current threads in the development of RE. Through a dozen carefully chosen examples I'll present RE which attends to different disciplines, religions, worldviews and opportunities for articulating personal worldviews. Expect to find learning methods both logical and creative and examples both close to home and from global contexts, and expect to be provoked, inspired and resourced in your RE teaching. The webinar delegates will receive resources to use the ideas in the classroom.

NATRE member discounts
Bronze/Professional/ITT/ECT members get £10 off, Silver members get £15 off, Gold members get £20 off, Platinum members go for FREE!
Due to social distancing guidelines we will be hosting this course online. Click here for full terms and conditions.
HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION: We will use your information to fulfil your contract with us including exercising our legitimate interest to keep you up-to-date with our products and services. For further details please view our full privacy policy and your rights at www.natre.org.uk/privacy/

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12 ideas for excellence in 11-14 RE (Webinar)

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BOOKING DEADLINE: 28 MARCH 2022 this highly practical webinar will pick up and demonstrate some current threads in the development of RE. Through a dozen carefully chosen examples I'll present RE which attends to different disciplines, religions, worldviews and opportunities for articulating personal worldviews.

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AQA: Advance Information for GCSE RS (A)

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AQA: Advance Information for GCSE RS (A)

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7th February 2022

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AQA: GCSE Religious Studies: Supporting student exam preparation

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AQA: GCSE Religious Studies: Supporting student exam preparation

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16:00-17:00
16th March 2022

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This free of charge training event will aim to strengthen teacher confidence, in supporting students preparing for exams.

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Ofqual: Subject-by-subject support for GCSE, AS and A level students in 2022

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Ofqual: Subject-by-subject support for GCSE, AS and A level students in 2022

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Published: 7th February 2022

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Overview of the support being provided for each qualification for students taking GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022.

Applies to England

Additional support this year

A package of support has been put in place for students taking GCSE, AS and A level qualifications in summer 2022. It is intended to make sure that we are being as fair as possible to students given the disruption they have experienced, and many continue to face, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Part of the changes includes more generous grading this year to provide a safety net for students who may have been impacted by the pandemic.

Advance information might look different for different subjects because of how they are structured and assessed, but as far as possible the exam boards have made sure the approaches within a subject are the same.

These changes apply in England and to Ofqual regulated qualifications taken elsewhere.

Exam boards have published specific information about the changes for each qualification they offer, you should check their websites for more information:

GCSEs

Where we list changes for subjects in 2022, we only list what has changed, not what is remaining the same.

Ancient history, GCSE

Art and design, GCSE

Changes for 2022

More information is available from the exam boards:

Astronomy, GCSE

Biblical Hebrew, GCSE

Biology, GCSE

Business, GCSE

Chemistry, GCSE

Citizenship studies, GCSE

Classical civilisation, GCSE

Classical Greek, GCSE

Combined science, GCSE

Changes for 2022

1. Information on some of the exam content has been provided to help students focus their revision.

2. A revised equation sheet has been provided for teaching and learning.

3. A clean copy of the equation sheet will be provided for students in the exams.

4. Teachers can deliver practical work by demonstration.

5. Examiners will build in generosity for students when setting grade boundaries.

More information is available from the exam boards:

Computer science, GCSE

Dance, GCSE

Design and technology, GCSE

Drama, GCSE

Economics, GCSE

Electronics, GCSE

Engineering, GCSE

English language, GCSE

English literature, GCSE

Film studies, GCSE

Food preparation and nutrition, GCSE

Geography, GCSE

Changes for 2022

1. Exams will cover less content than usual.

2. In the exams there will be a choice of content on which students must answer questions.

3. There will be no questions on the student's fieldwork experience.

4. Fieldwork requirements have been relaxed.

5. Examiners will build in generosity for students when setting grade boundaries.

More information is available from the exam boards:

Geology, GCSE

Changes for 2022

More information is available from the exam boards:

History, GCSE

Latin, GCSE

Maths, GCSE

Modern foreign languages, GCSE

Changes for 2022

More information is available from the exam boards:

Music, GCSE

Physical education, GCSE

Physical education (short course), GCSE

Physics, GCSE

Changes for 2022

1. Information on some of the exam content has been provided to help students focus their revision.

2. A revised equation sheet has been provided for teaching and learning.

3. A clean copy of the equation sheet will be provided for students in the exams.

4. Teachers can deliver practical work by demonstration.

5. Examiners will build in generosity for students when setting grade boundaries.

More information is available from the exam boards:

Psychology, GCSE

Religious studies, GCSE

Religious studies (short course), GCSE

Sociology, GCSE

Statistics, GCSE

AS and A levels

Accounting, AS and A level

Ancient history, AS and A level

Art and design, AS and A level

Biblical Hebrew, A level

Biology, AS

Biology, A level

Business, AS and A level

Chemistry, AS

Chemistry, A level

Classical civilisation, AS and A level

Classical Greek, AS and A level

Computer science, AS and A level

Dance, A level

Design and technology, AS and A level

Drama and theatre, AS and A level

Economics, AS and A level

Electronics, AS and A level

English language, AS and A level

English language and literature, AS and A level

English literature, AS and A level

Environmental science, A level

Changes for 2022

More information is available from the exam boards:

Film studies, AS and A level

Changes for 2022

More information is available from the exam boards:

Further maths, AS and A level

Geography, AS

Geography, A level

Geology, AS

Changes for 2022

More information is available from the exam boards:

Geology, A level

Changes for 2022

More information is available from the exam boards:

History, AS and A level

History of art, AS and A level

Latin, AS and A level

Law, AS and A level

Maths, AS and A level

Modern foreign languages, AS and A level

Changes for 2022

1. Information on some of the exam content has been provided to help students focus their revision.

2. Examiners will build in generosity for students when setting grade boundaries.

More information is available from the exam boards:

AQA - Bengali (Listening, Reading, Writing), A level

AQA - French, A level

AQA - French, AS

AQA - German, A level

AQA - German, AS

AQA - Modern Hebrew (Listening, Reading, Writing), A level

AQA - Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing), A level

AQA - Polish (Listening, Reading, Writing), A level

AQA - Spanish, A level

AQA - Spanish, AS

Pearson Edexcel - Arabic (2018), A level

Pearson Edexcel - Chinese (2017), A level

Pearson Edexcel - French (2016), A level

Pearson Edexcel - German (2016), A level

Pearson Edexcel - Greek (2018), A level

Pearson Edexcel - Gujarati (2018), A level

Pearson Edexcel - Italian (2017), A level

Pearson Edexcel - Japanese (2018), A level

Pearson Edexcel - Persian (2018), A level

Pearson Edexcel - Portuguese (2018), A level

Pearson Edexcel - Russian (2017), A level

Pearson Edexcel - Spanish (2016), A level

Pearson Edexcel - Turkish (2018), A level

Pearson Edexcel - Urdu (2018), A level

WJEC Eduqas - French, AS and A level

WJEC Eduqas - German, AS and A level

WJEC Eduqas - Spanish, AS and A level

Music, AS and A level

Music technology, AS and A level

Philosophy, AS and A level

Physical education, AS and A level

Physics, AS

Physics, A level

Politics, AS and A level

Psychology, AS and A level

Religious studies, AS and A level

Sociology, AS and A level

Statistics, AS and A level

Background to these changes

Full details of the changes we have made to our rules can be found in the decisions for the consultations ' Proposed changes to the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022' and ' Arrangements for non-exam assessment for qualifications in 2022 '.

Vocational and technical qualifications

Where needed, [awarding organisations are allowed to make adaptations to assessments and qualifications due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Schools and colleges have already been told what these changes will be, and you should speak to your school or college for further details about your specific qualification.

Accessible version of diagram

Generous grading

Exams will be graded more generously this year providing a safety net for students.

Changes to coursework

Non-exam assessment and fieldwork requirements adjusted, with flexibility in some subjects.

Optional content

There will be less content or fewer topics for students to learn in some GCSEs.

Support materials

Students will get formulae and equation sheets in some exams and won't have to memorise as much.

Advance information

Exam boards will give information on the focus of exams for most subjects to help students revise.

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Subject-by-subject support for GCSE, AS and A level students in 2022

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Overview of the support being provided for each qualification for students taking GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022.

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JCQ:  Summer 2022 Exams and Advance Information 

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JCQ:  Summer 2022 Exams and Advance Information 

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Updated: 7th February 2022

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Ofqual Dr Jo Saxton: Speech at Sixth Form Colleges Association Conference

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Ofqual Dr Jo Saxton: Speech at Sixth Form Colleges Association Conference

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19th January 2022
Sets out the support for students taking exams and assessments this year, including advance information and a fair approach to grading

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Good morning, everyone. Bill: thank you so much for inviting me. I'm thrilled to be with you, in spirit if not in person.

I first met Bill in something like 2008. I went to see him in his office somewhere high up in Millbank tower. It had the most stunning view across south Westminster. Bill deployed me as a literacy consultant, and not long after, I found myself in a particularly tough new academy in the East Midlands. At that time, challenging educational circumstances on the ground did not include providing and complying with public health measures, and it did not include devising and determining high stakes assessments on top of everything else. Your response to the scale and pace of the change required by the pandemic in the last 2 years is simply breath-taking-more so than any view.

Let me give a sense of scale. Thanks to your commitment and efforts, and those of many thousands of other sector colleagues, despite exams being cancelled, last year 1.2 million students received grades for GCSE, AS and A levels. You, and staff at schools and exam centres, submitted 5.7 million Teacher Assessed Grades for students in England last summer. That includes over 750,000 A level TAGs.

And, in the spring and summer of 2021 alone, thanks again to your efforts, awarding organisations were able to issue over 1 million qualification results to students taking Functional Skills qualifications, Core Maths, International Baccalaureate diplomas, Cambridge Pre-Us, Applied Generals, Tech Levels and others.

2022 is still very young, yet as at today, over 500 regulated assessments and exams have taken place, that's 480,000 entries, or 89% of the January series will have been undertaken, which is extraordinary, given the pressures of the Omicron variant. Once again, in very large part because you have adapted staffing, prioritisation and invigilation, and many of you will have even reorganised your facilities to enable COVID-safe exam sittings to go ahead.

None of us would have chosen this turn of events, and whilst media commentators are right that it has shown the extraordinary purpose, commitment, drive and dedication of those who work in colleges, sixth forms and schools - for which I, and Ofqual of course applaud you - I think there is a bigger point here, and it is about adaptation.

As Darwin and Wallace posited in the 1890s, it is the ability of a species to adapt to its environment that determines its success. The versatility you have all shown over the past 2 years - and the scale of change to qualification and assessment policy and practice that you have realised - must surely exceed that of any generation of educators, certainly in recent history.

And as you know, there are more novel and important adaptations to come, in the form of advance information next month, together with a measured approach to ensure fair grading in the summer. I want to talk to you now about both of these; how they were conceived; why I believe they will help your students, and why they will mark an important staging post in our move back towards normality.

Advance Information

The first point I want to make about advance information is that it's not something we would have contemplated in 'normal times'. In fact, we have gone to great lengths - the whole qualification system has gone to great lengths traditionally - through Ofqual's regulations to reduce the risk of any student or teacher knowing in advance the focus of any exam paper. But we wanted a way to make the exam experience less daunting for students, while also preserving the integrity of the content coverage, as well as preserving the integrity of the assessments themselves.

The whole point is to provide as universal as possible a revision aid for students. And this, combined with the anticipation of a difficult winter, is how policymakers arrived at the 7 February publication date. Any earlier, and content coverage would have been affected; any later and it comes too late in the day for revision to be effective, too late to allow you to recap and review where necessary.

Obviously this is the first time this innovative approach has been taken, and 2022 exam papers were not designed with the publication of advance information in mind. I've no doubt that some people will feel we haven't gone far enough, and others will feel we have gone too far. But the people who matter to me the most are the students - and my sincere hope is that - with guidance from you - they will be able to benefit from the information being shared.

Advance Information is novel for everyone in the exam system. Exam boards have developed it for almost every subject. They've worked at pace to do so in the interests of students. They have done their absolute level best to deliver focused aids, without revealing the questions, and you can imagine that's definitely an art rather than a science. If they'd gone too close to revealing the questions it would have undermined exams and turned them into short-term memory tests rather than true measures of what students have learned, know, understand and can do.

There has been some commentary already about whether advance information will mainly benefit more able students because it might support them to revise for the higher tariff questions.

Of course, much of the advance information gives a steer on how to revise for higher tariff questions, although not all of it.

Bluntly, to focus advance information on low tariff questions would be nonsensical. It would be silly to publish a document that says something like; you will be asked to identify the year in which the Versailles Treaty was signed, or the year in which Magna Carta was signed. Clearly, at that point, the exam would stop being an exam.

But supporting students to revise for higher tariff questions does not mean that advance information will only support the most able students. Higher tariff doesn't necessarily mean harder content. We know that candidates from across all abilities and demographics gain marks across an exam paper and not only in the low tariff questions. And we hope that the benefit of advance information will mean that students who suffered the most disruption, or those who are less able, may gain confidence to tackle elements of a paper that they might previously not have felt confident to try.

And just as much as advance information is a new phenomenon for the boards and for colleges and schools, so is it new for us at Ofqual. It presents us, as the regulator, with a novel and interesting challenge. We have created a regulatory framework for exceptional measures that would, quite simply, have been unthinkable in a normal exam context. The pandemic has required a range of regulatory reprioritisation and adaptation in the same way that you have had to reprioritise and adapt your normal practice. I am clear that our regulations must align to the interests of students - given the impact on their education experience these past 2 years. So, what does this novel situation look like from the regulator's point of view?

First, the tenet must hold true that Ofqual does not see exams before they are sat. That doesn't change this year. Each year the number of people that know the content of live papers before they are sat is very tightly controlled by exam boards, and that's right. That's key to fairness for students, and important to minimise the risk of any leaks. The exam boards are accountable to Ofqual for the quality and security of their papers. And this year they are also accountable to us for the accurate and careful introduction of advance information.

So, our approach has been about putting in place principles to ensure that advance information secures the interests of students and we've set the right regulations to enable that.

In practical terms, that means that we have worked with subject specialists and our assessment design team, and the boards to agree over 300 specifications how the advance information will work. You get a sense of what a dramatic innovation that is for us to have adapted our rules to allow this is, if you recall the outrage some years ago when a broadsheet newspaper sent a journalist to attend an exam board event, at which hints about the focus of certain questions were allegedly provided in this meeting. The scale of that shock really puts this year's innovation into perspective.

I see it as a really exciting adaptation. We will, of course, be monitoring its effect closely. Shortly after publication, we will be reaching out to hear your - and your students' - views on how it delivers the intentions. We will do so again once exams have been sat. There is much to learn from what will happen in the coming months and so we will expand a wide-ranging research programme to evaluate the impact of advance information to inform thinking for future years. But I ask that when you receive the advance information, please do remember the positive intentions behind it - it represents a unique coming together of everybody across the qualification system to act in the interests of students, to provide them with support whilst also enabling the re-instatement of the tried, tested - and trusted - approaches to the awarding of qualifications.

Grading

Our approach to advance information was informed and driven by the views of you and of your students - we heard from teachers who were anxious about their students' ability to cover the full range of subject content. We heard from students about their varied experiences of the pandemic.

This same listening approach was applied to how we've tackled grading too.

It was clear talking to students and their parents, that they wanted to get back to normal, but not to do so in one single leap.

At the end of September, we announced our resulting approach to grading next summer, one intended to be as fair as possible to 2022 students. Fair, because it will provide a safety net to students who have been so affected by the pandemic. Fair, because it will iron out some of the anomalies that have come into play through the non-examined years. Fair because it will secure consistency between subjects and between exam boards. Let's remember too that this year marks the return to exams - the way the qualifications have been designed - with all students assessed in the same way, marked, and graded consistently and externally to the same standard. That, along with advance information which itself provides unprecedented support, represents an unprecedented package of aid.

So, 2022 is a transition year to reflect the realities of the pandemic and that students' education does continue to be disrupted. Remember the package as a whole - it works together as a complete aid and support. You need to not try to pick apart individual elements of it.

The results in 2020 and 2021, when exams were cancelled, were clearly out of line with the results of previous exam years. As we ourselves learn to adapt to living with COVID-19, it is right that we take steps to resume arrangements that are coherent with those from pre-pandemic years. We must do it gradually; and this underpins our so-called midpoint approach.

Let me be clear, there is no single statistical midpoint. There will be no standardisation model to determine students' grades. Grade boundaries for each specification will be set by senior examiners, critically, only after they have reviewed the work produced by students. As a check and balance, of course exam boards will use other evidence, including statistical evidence of how students were graded when exams were last taken, so that grade boundaries do, indeed, deliver this generous midpoint approach. That means you can assure your students and their families that, as regulator, we are doing everything we can to secure approaches to standards which are fair, whichever exam board a student is working with, whichever subject. As regulator, one of the key things that we do is review the results. I started to experience this process for the autumn series. Results across every subject in every board are reviewed in great detail and Ofqual checks the appropriate processes have been followed; considers anomalies with exam boards, before results are issued.

Because the process of determining grade boundaries must follow the act of script marking, which of course follows candidates sitting papers, what we can't tell you is precisely what these arrangements mean for results. But I can assure you that our grading requirements will provide a safety-net for this cohort and it is likely to mean that results overall are higher than in normal years.

Talking to UCAS, and to employers, they wanted to see grades that were closer to the currency they were used to. They also recognised it was not right to implement this in one go. We've heard concerns that repeating 2021 outcomes would likely lead to universities devising alternative entry arrangements and raising the grades on which offers are based. Contributing to a system where that might happen would not actually increase opportunity for students in practice.

Vocational and Technical Qualifications grading

Coherence, parity if you will, between vocational and technical qualifications and general qualifications is really important - and something that the regulatory framework devised during the pandemic better supports than pre-pandemic arrangements.

Ofqual's specific regulatory framework for awarding vocational qualifications in the pandemic requires awarding organisations to secure, as far as possible, that VTQ students are neither disadvantaged nor advantaged compared with their GCSE and A level peers. That principle has not existed in legal regulatory terms before.

Boards will take account, therefore, of the approach for GCSEs and A levels when setting standards in their own vocational and technical qualifications. We, as regulator, will closely monitor the arrangements and look at what awarding organisations are putting in place for their qualifications to ensure they are delivered fairly and are appropriately adapted in the interests of students.

Contingencies

I am really aware that some of you, and your students, would dearly like us to switch off contingencies given the government's confidence and commitment to exams going ahead. But I'm afraid that the need to collect evidence of student performance in case exams don't take place is important. It won't surprise you that I can't agree to turn off those arrangements. Not, of course, that it's entirely in my gift.

As well as showing us your incredible resilience and ability to adapt, the pandemic has also been unpredictable. That's the one predictable thing about the pandemic; it's continually surprised us and caught us off guard. It wouldn't be doing justice to you and your students to stand down contingencies at this time.

I am, nonetheless, hugely sympathetic to how challenging operationally and emotionally for you and your students it is to ride both these horses, but there are no plans to turn off Plan B.

Ofqual: expert and human, regulating in the interests of students

I promised Bill to leave time to take your questions, but before doing that, please allow me to share a little bit about myself, given this is my first chance to speak to you.

I am here today as Chief Regulator, but I am above everything else, like you, an educator.

I thrive in challenging environments - and actually anyone who knows me will tell you that I actively seek them out. Whether that is leading schools in disadvantaged communities, working in central government in the eye of a pandemic, or coming to Ofqual as we move further through the demands and opportunities the pandemic has forced.

For me, there is nothing more important in education than young people getting the qualifications they need to unlock their future. This is something I live and breathe.

I live and breathe it because that was precisely my own experience.

My qualifications opened all sorts of doors for me - including studying and working in six different countries around the world, and I want everyone to have those same opportunities - but especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

That's why I am here. Every day I think about those students - those with caring responsibilities at home; those who have a fractured or chaotic home life; those whose families are working second, or even third jobs, to keep their homes warm and food on the table - I want qualifications to work for them in the best way possible, to open doors for them.

These are the students who I've started to talk about as being my compass. Their interests are my true north. And this true north breathes life into Ofqual's statutory objectives.

What flows from that, is an Ofqual which is expert, absolutely, but an Ofqual that must also be human. That means listening - to students of all ages, but also to you, those who teach and lead them. You who make the longlist of qualification choices for them, you who support them as they work towards securing qualifications that have the potential to change their lives.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will be spending time with colleges, sixth forms, schools, different education and training providers in every region of England, so that I can listen to you, to students, to governors and to parents. I want to hear directly about the challenges faced in the qualification system. It's only by hearing and responding to these challenges that I and we at Ofqual can improve how assessment and qualifications work. Some of these things that we'll hear about, Ofqual can do something about. There are others that won't be in our gift, but we can do our best to play our active part in the system which we regulate on behalf of students.

I've so far been lucky enough to visit some colleges in the West Midlands and some schools in the south west. Some of this listening work will happen virtually so that the pandemic doesn't slow us down, nor interrupt your day too much.

What's important is that the insights we gain from you, your students and their families, inform our decisions. To those who think accessible qualifications are dumbing down, I say there is no better illustration of the importance of the power of the functional skills curriculum and those qualifications that enable entry into employment, than what I saw at Hereward College. There I met Sophie and Akram who were developing and practising functional skills in the college's hospitality training centre. Graduates of the college dramatically exceed national averages of employability for those with SEND, and those 2 were well on their way to being able to be employed by a national hotel chain. I am proud that one of the first decisions taken during my tenure as Chief Regulator was to publish a consultation on improving the accessibility of assessments, and another decision on the regulation of reformed digital functional skills. These are live examples of acting in the interest of students.

From visiting Walsall College, I gained real insight into how working with a range of awarding organisations can really meet a college's needs. The Walsall team shared how, while the larger AOs (awarding organisations) have the breadth and can deliver at scale, it is often the smaller ones - many of whom offer the end-point assessments for apprentices - who offer a personal and flexible approach to assessment bookings, which is really useful to help provide confidence and support, and take an element of stress out of the system as apprentices get closer to being ready to take their end point assessment. Accordingly, we will continue to be nuanced in our consideration of applications by organisations seeking entry to this sector and to our recognition. Assessment and organisational capacity must be balanced with a student-centric culture.

Conclusion

Listening to and acting in the interests of students is the true north for everything I will do as Chief Regulator. The context we must navigate together is one of adaptation and innovation, crystalised by the pandemic. But it also a time of reform, already in train pre-pandemic - T Levels, apprenticeship expansion, among others.

I have not even touched on the possibilities afforded by technology and other innovations. I am convinced of the opportunities they present to improve assessments for students and apprentices - to make them more accessible, more valid, more reliable. We will work together on these in the coming years. We need to ensure that both what we assess and how we assess it stays relevant to needs of employers and society at large.

We share, I have no doubt, a commitment to ensuring that qualification evolution is squarely in the interests of students and apprentices. I am hugely grateful to teachers in colleges, schools and training providers across the country, for the vital part they will play as we navigate the way forward together.

Thank you.

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Dr Jo Saxton at Sixth Form Colleges Association conference

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The Chief Regulator sets out the support for students taking exams and assessments this year, including advance information and a fair approach to grading.

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Ofqual: Letter to schools - Advance information

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Ofqual: Letter to schools - Advance information

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Published: 9th December 2021

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I write to update you about the nature of the advance information, on the content of some GCSE, AS and A level exams, which the exam boards will be publishing by 7 February 2022.

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- Advance information on exams will be available from 7th February 2022
- Examples of the Advance information format available in the JCQ document
- E-learning module available for GCSE Religious Studies: Mark scheme guidance and application
- The Mark schemes for the November exam series for A-level test papers will not be available until after the 16th December 2021 and for the GCSE test papers not until the after the 13th January 202

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GCSE Religious Studies: Mark scheme guidance and application

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GCSE Religious Studies: Mark scheme guidance and application

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E-learning
Available: 25 November 2021 to 31 March 2022

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GCSE Religious Studies: Mark scheme guidance and application

Course summary

This AQA on-demand course will give expert instruction from a senior AQA examiner in how to apply mark schemes to key question types as well as providing the opportunity to take part in marking activities.

As part of our AQA support offer to teachers, you can access the module as many times as you wish until 31 March 2022.

Please note that this course does not contain any information about assessment for Summer 2022.
Your centre number is required to access all AQA courses.
Course reference

RELGOE3 - use this in communications with us.

Course description

Improve your confidence in awarding marks accurately.

Gain a better understanding of mark scheme application.

Identify typical features and characteristics of responses.

Practise and receive feedback on student response examples.

Suitable for

All teachers who need additional guidance in marking GCSE Religious Studies.

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This AQA on-demand course will give expert instruction from a senior AQA examiner in how to apply mark schemes to key question types as well as providing the opportunity to take part in marking activities. As part of our AQA support offer to teachers, you can access the module as many times as you wish until 31 March 2022.

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JCQ: Advance Information for Qualifications in 2022

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JCQ: Advance Information for Qualifications in 2022

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DfE: Guidance for schools/colleges on contingency arrangements for GCSEs, AS and A levels in summer 2022

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DfE: Guidance for schools/colleges on contingency arrangements for GCSEs, AS and A levels in summer 2022

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Published: 11th November 2021

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Arrangements for exams and non-exam assessments for students taking qualifications in summer 2022.

Details

The government is clear that students entering GCSEs, AS or A levels in 2022 should expect to take exams in the summer and complete any non-exam assessments in the usual way throughout the year.

In recognition of the fact that students' education has been disrupted by the pandemic, they will be given extra help to prepare for their exams, as detailed in this publication.

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Guidance on contingency arrangements for GCSEs, AS and A levels in summer 2022

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Arrangements for exams and non-exam assessments for students taking qualifications in summer 2022.

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DfE: Contingency arrangement for awarding qualifications in summer 2022

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DfE: Contingency arrangement for awarding qualifications in summer 2022

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Updated: 11th November 2021

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Contingency arrangements: GCSE, AS, A level, Project and AEA

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Consultation proposals for contingency arrangements for the award of GCSE, AS, A level, Project and AEA qualifications in 2022.

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Because of the ongoing impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there are some changes to how GCSE Religious Studies A will be assessed in 2022.

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Because of the ongoing impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there are some changes to how GCSE Religious Studies A will be assessed in 2022.

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Because of the ongoing impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there are some changes to how GCSE Religious Studies (Short Course) will be assessed in 2022.

These changes are for 2022 only.

Advance information on exams will be available

To help students focus their exam preparation, there will be advance information on what exams will cover.

This advance information will be available by 7 February 2022, or sooner if the pandemic worsens.

In the meantime, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) has published guidance for teachers and students on the use of advance information for 2022.

Help and support

For further help and support, please contact us.

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Because of the ongoing impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there are some changes to how GCSE Religious Studies (Short Course) will be assessed in 2022. These changes are for 2022 only. To help students focus their exam preparation, there will be advance information on what exams will cover.

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Learn more about changes to exams and assessment in 2021. Discover Get ready for grading - our support programme for teachers - and more

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One Page Summary of changes to the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022

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One Page Summary of changes to the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022

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30th September 2021

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Ofqual: Consultation Outcome for Changes to the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022

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Ofqual: Consultation Outcome for Changes to the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022

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Published: 30th September 2021

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This consultation has concluded

Download the full outcome

Detail of outcome

In summary, these decisions mean that for summer 2022:

1. There will be optional topics and content in GCSE English literature, history, ancient history and geography. Ofqual will require exam boards to change how they assess these subjects to reflect the expected changes to the way the subject content is assessed, as proposed in the consultation.

2. Centres will be allowed to deliver practical work in GCSE biology, chemistry, physics, combined science, geology and astronomy, AS level biology, chemistry, physics and geology, and AS and A level environmental science by demonstration. We would encourage centres to continue to make available hands-on practical activities for their students wherever possible. This does not require changes to the assessment arrangements that the exam boards have in place for each of these specifications.

3. Centres will be allowed to assess the Common Practical Assessment Criteria (CPAC) across the minimum number of practical activities required to enable students to demonstrate their competence in A level biology, chemistry, physics and geology.

4. Exam boards can carry out remote monitoring of centres' application of the CPAC.

5. Students taking GCSE, AS and A level art and design will be assessed on their portfolio only.

6. Exam boards will provide advance information about the focus of the content of the exams for all GCSE, AS and A level subjects (except GCSE English literature, history, ancient history and geography) for the summer 2022 exams. The advance information will meet the principles set out in the consultation document.

7. The policy intention of providing advance information is that it will support students' revision. Therefore, the DfE has confirmed that advance information will be provided by 7 February 2022 at the latest. This will enable teachers to plan to adapt their teaching in the second half of the spring term if necessary. DfE has also decided to retain the flexibility for advance information to be deployed at other points ahead of 7 February 2022 if circumstances require. At least a week's notice will be given if it is decided that advance information will be released earlier than 7 February 2022.

8. Students will be given a formulae sheet for GCSE mathematics in summer 2022. Exam boards will provide copies of the formulae sheet for use in teaching and to ensure that students are familiar with it prior to the exams. Clean copies of the formulae sheet will be provided in the exams.

9. Students will be given a revised equation sheet for GCSE physics and combined science in summer 2022, covering all the equations required in the subject content. Exam boards will provide copies of the equation sheet for use in teaching and to ensure that students are familiar with it prior to the exams. Clean copies of the equation sheet will be provided in the exams.

Feedback received

Detail of feedback received

The consultation was available online for 21 days and received 6,725 responses. It gathered views on the following proposals:

choice of topics in GCSE English literature, history, ancient history and choice of content in GCSE geography

changes to the requirements for the delivery of practical activities in science subjects, and assessment in art and design

the provision of advance information on the focus of the content of exams, in the majority of subjects at GCSE, AS and A level

the provision of support materials in GCSE mathematics, physics and combined science exams

Several themes were suggested by respondents across multiple questions. To avoid duplicating analysis, these themes are summarised below.

First, many respondents emphasised that proposed changes to summer 2022 exams and assessments needed to be announced as soon as possible to provide staff sufficient time to plan (adjusting curriculums and mock exam materials and so on). Reasons provided by respondents included the fact that last-minute announcements would increase workloads and place additional pressure on students and teachers. In addition, respondents mentioned that earlier announcements would allow students more time to familiarise themselves with additional materials (such as revised equation sheets).

Second, some respondents noted the variation in students' experiences regarding remote learning over the past two years, with some schools and colleges facing more frequent lockdowns and self-isolation events than others, and that this should be taken into account in any proposed change. Similarly, respondents brought up the concept of a "level playing field" for students and expressed concerns over proposals where, in their opinion, some students or schools and colleges may be disadvantaged relative to others.

Third, respondents suggested several modifications for exams, including lengthening the time students had to complete the exam, dividing exams into shorter papers, allowing students to choose topics to respond to on the day of the exam or reducing the number of exam papers students had to complete. In particular, some respondents stated they had faced difficulties in covering the specification during remote learning, and reducing the number of exam papers or allowing students to choose topics would reduce pressure on students caused by missed learning time. Respondents also mentioned that the subject content across many GCSE, AS and A level subjects should be reduced.

Fourth, some respondents expressed concern that the DfE and Ofqual's proposed changes were limited to a specific set of qualifications, in particular the absence of modifications to A Level subjects compared to equivalent GCSE subjects.

Fifth, many respondents generally agreed with proposals to carry over changes proposed in previous consultations in 2020 and 2021, as consistency would reduce the amount of time teachers and other staff would need to prepare for the upcoming year.

Sixth, a number of respondents who disagreed with proposals on choice of topic/content or advance information believed that these proposals would lead to grade inflation for certain students. Because these proposals would narrow the focus of exams (compared to the full specification), in their view the proposals would advantage students with resources for external tutors. As a result, proposals to provide choice of topic/content or advance information would make it difficult to differentiate between "good" and "excellent" students.

Finally, a small proportion of respondents across all respondent types called for exams to be cancelled and students to be assigned teacher assessed grades (as in summer 2021). Alternatively, respondents proposed that no modifications be made to exams and assessments in summer 2022 (compared to before the pandemic) and instead grade boundaries should be adjusted to account for varying difficulties of exams due to lost learning time.

Original consultation

Summary

A joint consultation published by Ofqual and the Department for Education on proposed changes to the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022.

This consultation ran from

Consultation description

This joint consultation by the Department for Education and Ofqual invites your views on proposed adaptations to the assessment of GCSEs and GCE AS and A levels for students in England taking exams in summer 2022. A separate but related consultation on proposed changes to assessments for vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) in the 2021 to 2022 academic year is taking place.

These proposals are made in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has disrupted education during the current (2020 to 2021) and previous (2019 to 2020) academic years. This consultation covers the arrangements for exams and assessments to be taken in summer 2022 in light of this disruption and uncertainty about the continuing impact of the pandemic over the coming academic year.

The proposals take account of the responses Ofqual received to its consultations on qualifications in July and December 2020, as well as more recent discussions with stakeholders. The proposals are in addition to the changes to non-exam assessment (NEA) and fieldwork requirements for summer 2022 which were confirmed by Ofqual on 16 June following consultation.

This consultation proposes a package of measures to help mitigate the impact of disruption to students' education, and seeks views on proposals on the following areas:

choice of topics in GCSE English literature, history, ancient history and choice of content in GCSE geography

changes to the requirements for the delivery of practical activities in science subjects, and assessment in art and design

the provision of advance information on the focus of the content of exams, in the majority of subjects at GCSE, AS and A level

the provision of support materials in GCSE mathematics, physics and combined science exams

Documents

Thank you for your feedback

Report a problem with this page

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Proposed changes to the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022

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A joint consultation published by Ofqual and the Department for Education on proposed changes to the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022.

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In order to fulfil this purpose, we advocate that RE needs to provide a balance between three disciplines. These are:

Theology: This is about believing. It looks at where beliefs come from, how they have changed over time, how they are applied differently in different contexts and how they relate to each other.

Philosophy: This is about thinking. It is about finding out how and whether things make sense. It deals with questions of morality and ethics. It takes seriously the nature of reality, knowledge and existence.

Human/Social Sciences: This is about living. It explores the diverse ways in which people practise their beliefs. It engages with the impact of beliefs on individuals, communities and societies.

An animation explaining these three disciplines is available to view here:

The aims of Religious Education in Church schools are:

To enable pupils to know about and understand Christianity as a living faith that influences the lives of people worldwide and as the religion that has most shaped British culture and heritage.

To enable pupils to know and understand about other major world religions and world views, their impact on society, culture and the wider world, enabling pupils to express ideas and insights.

To contribute to the development of pupils' own spiritual/philosophical convictions, exploring and enriching their own beliefs and values.

(The Church of England Education Office Statement of Entitlement 2016) Read the current version of the document here.

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Religious education - Diocese of Norwich

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In order to fulfil this purpose, we advocate that RE needs to provide a balance between three disciplines. These are: Theology: This is about believing. It looks at where beliefs come from, how they have changed over time, how they are applied differently in different contexts and how they relate to each other.

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The Holocaust Educational Trust is internationally recognised for its expertise in training teachers in Holocaust pedagogy best practice.

More than 1,500 teachers take part in our programmes each year. We offer free professional training workshops and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) residential courses to new and experienced teachers across the UK. Our sessions are delivered by an experienced team of trainers, and focus on pedagogical issues as well as demonstrating practical ideas, and our free online classroom resources.
Whilst we hope to return to face-to-face training sessions and residential courses in the 2021-22 academic year, we are monitoring the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and following government guidance, including the latest advice on international travel regarding our overseas residential programme. Where in person training is not possible, we have been developing online provisions to ensure that we can continue to support teacher training and development.
More information about our teacher training programmes can be found below but if you have any questions please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Online Training Sessions

These sessions are open to all teachers, and participation is free of charge. They are held on Zoom.
Introduction to the Holocaust Educational Trust
This 90-minute session will introduce teachers and trainees to the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust and to the pedagogical guidelines which underpin our work. The session will provide a basic introduction to Holocaust history, and to our primary and secondary schemes of work.
An Approach to Teaching about the Holocaust
This additional 90-minute session builds on our introductory session to explore our teaching resources and their use in the classroom. Participants must have completed Introduction to the Holocaust Educational Trust before joining this session.

Bespoke Workshops

Our free pedagogical workshops are delivered across the UK and are adaptable to meet the needs of your school or institution. Sessions can be targeted for one subject area or cross-curricular groups.

The Trust works with Initial Teacher Training providers, through universities, school-centred schemes and employment-based programmes, as well as providing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and in-service training to experienced school staff.

We partner with local authorities, academy federations and individual schools to deliver regional CPD training seminars.
Whilst we are currently unable to lead bespoke workshops face-to-face we are able to lead them online. Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for details.
Teacher Study Seminars

Our teacher study seminars are open to anyone who has previously undertaken teacher training with the Holocaust Educational Trust. The series of seminars aims to extend historical knowledge, and/or to explore some of the pedagogical challenges associated with teaching and learning about the Holocaust.

Dates for our October 2021 online study seminars are now available on our Teacher Study Seminar page.

Intensive CPD Courses

The UK-based Exploring the Holocaust residential course, held every February, is especially aimed at those new to Holocaust teaching. Educational sessions are delivered by experts from the Holocaust Educational Trust and prominent academics engaging with the latest scholarship on the Holocaust. The course also explores the benefits and challenges of cross-curricular collaboration.

Our annual teacher training course held at Yad Vashem in Israel is composed of three intensive stages: a one-day introductory seminar in London, a 10-day visit to Yad Vashem and a follow-up weekend in the Midlands.

Teacher Study Visits are advanced site-based training courses. Past visits have been held in France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland. The on-site sessions examine human stories and approaches to site-based education.

Developed as a response to restrictions on in-person training and international travel as a result of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, our Virtual Teacher Study Visits explore the impact of the Holocaust on Jewish communities across Europe.
We are currently inviting teachers to register their interest in taking part in our 2021-2022 residential courses, and will invite applications when these courses are confirmed.
The Trust is partnered with Vision Schools Scotland and offers bespoke CPD training to teachers taking part in this programme.

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As teachers and students return to school for the new academic year, we are writing to ask you to share (with RE teachers in your SACRE area) details of the Holocaust Educational Trust's educational programmes for primary and secondary school teachers and trainees. Details of these programmes can be found on the Holocaust Educational Trust website.

The Holocaust and the RE curriculum

Teaching about aspects of the Holocaust in RE lessons can help students explore:

The connections between beliefs - both religious and secular - and actions.

Moral dilemmas and choices, and the factors which can influence them.

Responses to 'fundamental' questions such as the nature and causes of suffering and 'evil', and ultimately, what it means to be human.

The interaction, and sometimes conflict, between different faiths and/or belief systems.

Individual and collective identity.

It can also support students in practising essential skills:

Understanding and scrutiny of the beliefs of others.

Critical investigation of contrasting viewpoints, with an ability to reach reasoned judgements, and a willingness to challenge preconceptions.

Interpretation of a range of sources to be able to reach and justify independent opinions.

Effective communication of emotions and opinions.

Reflection on the nature and meaning of morality and on the importance of moral choices.

Teacher Training

The Holocaust Educational Trust offers free training for teachers at all stages of their careers. Details of our teacher training programme can be found at www.het.org.uk/education/teacher-training.

RE teachers from your area are invited to register for any of our upcoming online seminars and virtual teacher study visits, or to register their interest in our 2021-22 residential courses. These include our:

To register interest in a session or course, or to book a bespoke teacher training workshop, colleagues should email TeacherCPD@het.org.uk.

Teaching Programmes

We provide free and downloadable teaching resources, which can be found at www.het.org.uk/teaching-resources and include resources for primary, secondary and post-16 students.

Details of our outreach programme, through which teachers can arrange for a Holocaust survivor to share their testimony with their students, can be found at www.het.org.uk/education/outreach-programme. Further information about our educational programmes for teachers can be found on our website.

We would be delighted if you could share this information with RE teacher(s) in your school. We hope to work with you in the new school year.

If you or your colleagues have any questions, please contact us:

Teacher Training Team
Holocaust Educational Trust
Tel: 020 7222 6822
Email: TeacherCPD@het.org.uk
Web: www.het.org.uk
This news item was published : 23 September 2021.

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As teachers and students return to school for the new academic year, we are writing to ask you to share (with RE teachers in your SACRE area) details of the Holocaust Educational Trust's educational programmes for primary and secondary school teachers and trainees. Details of these programmes can be found on the Holocaust Educational Trust website.

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Edexcel: Provisional 2022 GCSE Timetable

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Edexcel: Provisional 2022 GCSE Timetable

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ESFA: Information on the planning and delivery of 16-19 study programmes 2021-22

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ESFA: Information on the planning and delivery of 16-19 study programmes 2021-22

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Published: 20th July 2021

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Information for education and training providers on the planning and delivery of study programmes.

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This guide sets out the government's policy on 16 to 19 study programmes. It covers academic, technical and vocational study programmes, including traineeships and supported internships.

It applies to all providers of 16 to 19 education in England, including:

schools

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Previous versions of the guidance are available on the UK Government Web Archive.

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16 to 19 study programmes: guide for providers

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Information for education and training providers on the planning and delivery of study programmes.

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Ofsted: New Inspection Handbook for Sep 21

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Ofsted: New Inspection Handbook for Sep 21

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Ofsted guidance on inspecting maintained schools and academies in England under the education inspection framework.

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Ofsted guidance on inspecting maintained schools and academies in England under the education inspection framework.

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Full details of the programmes offered by the Schools' Department plus guidance for visiting groups can be found in our Educational Visits Guide. Click here for a printable PDF.

Prices for School Visits 2021 - 2022. Click here for a printable PDF.

Residential visits offer far greater scope for planning an unhurried programme and we can tailor-make a package to suit the needs of your students. Please ask about additional sessions which can be included in your package.

Most of the programmes can be adapted for small groups of special needs students.

The department is staffed by our dedicated team of experienced and qualified teachers and volunteers.

Planning a Visit?

"The Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham provides curriculum-based education programmes aimed at enhancing pupils' classroom studies of moral, spiritual and cultural issues and encouraging them to open their minds to all aspects of the world around them."

Susanna Smart, Lead Judge, The Sandford Awards for Heritage Education
Teacher's Guide - Download PDF Schools, Children & Families Health & Safety Guidelines- Download PDF Safeguarding Policy - Download PDF Residential Visits - Download PDF
One of the schools team will be pleased to give advice and will help you to arrange a visit that will be both memorable and worthwhile. For further information email schools@olw-shrine.org.uk or call us on 01328 824205 (please leave a message, if no reply).

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School Programmes - The Shrine Of Our Lady Of Walsingham

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Full details of the programmes offered by the Schools' Department plus guidance for visiting groups can be found in our Educational Visits Guide. Click here for a printable PDF. Prices for School Visits 2021 - 2022. Click here for a printable PDF.

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Cullham St Gabriel's is an endowed charitable foundation. We are committed to providing teachers of religion and worldviews and other professionals with the support, connections, challenges and professional development they need. We want all partners, such as parents, school governors, faith/belief communities and policy makers, to be positively aware of the benefits of a high-quality study of religion and worldviews.

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National Association of Teachers of Religious Education

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Subject teacher association for religious education professionals. Made by teachers for teachers to support those who teach and lead in all schools!

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Ofsted - Religious Education Research Review

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Ofsted - Religious Education Research Review

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Published: 12th May 2021

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Introduction

In religious education ( RE), pupils enter into a rich discourse about the religious and non-religious traditions that have shaped Great Britain and the world. RE in primary and secondary schools enables pupils to take their place within a diverse multi-religious and multi-secular society. At its best, it is intellectually challenging and personally enriching. It affords pupils both the opportunity to see the religion and non-religion in the world, and the opportunity to make sense of their own place in that world.

This review explores literature relating to the field of RE. Its purpose is to identify factors that contribute to high-quality school RE curriculums, the teaching of the curriculum, assessment and systems.

Since there are a variety of ways that schools can construct and teach a high-quality RE curriculum, it is important to recognise that there is no single way of achieving high-quality RE.

In this review, we have:

outlined the national context in relation to RE

summarised our review of research into factors that can affect the quality of education in RE

considered curriculum progression in RE, pedagogy, assessment and the impact of school leaders' decisions on provision

The review draws on a range of sources, including our 'Education inspection framework: overview of research' and our 3 phases of curriculum research.

It is also supported by research into RE, including research into practice and the theoretical work of academics and professionals.

We hope that, through this work, we will contribute to raising the quality of RE for all young people.

The education inspection framework and RE

Our education inspection framework ( EIF) reflects the expectations of how RE is provided. All schools that are state-funded, including free schools and academies, are legally required to provide RE as part of their curriculum. All schools are required to teach RE to all pupils at all key stages (including sixth form), except for those withdrawn.

In schools without a religious character, we look at RE as part of EIF inspections under section 5. We also look at RE in voluntary controlled ( VC) schools, whether or not they are designated as having a religious character.

In other schools with a religious character, RE is inspected by a body appointed by the maintained school's governing body under section 48 of the Education Act 2005 or as provided in the academy's funding agreement.

This report will be of particular interest to schools whose RE we look at under the EIF. However, it should also be of interest to the entire RE sector. For a summary of the legal context of RE and Ofsted's inspection arrangements, see Appendix A.

Developments in RE

In RE, there are different issues that can affect quality of education. Ofsted's previous report on RE in 2013, 'Religious education: realising the potential', stated that the structures that underpin the local determination of the RE curriculum have failed to keep pace with changes in the wider educational world. The local determination of RE also means that a concept of quality is not straightforward to identify.

Since 2013, various subject and research reports have been published. A detailed commentary on them is outlined in Appendix B. These reports may supply further insights into the concept of high-quality RE. They include:

Much of this literature also suggests that RE curriculum development in England has not kept pace with the academic and intellectual developments that might help pupils to make sense of our complex multi-religious and multi-secular society.

The evolution of society's religious and non-religious landscape highlights that it is all the more important for pupils to build up accurate knowledge of the complexity and diversity of global religion and non-religion. The 2013 Ofsted report stated that many pupils leave school with scant subject knowledge in RE.[footnote 14] The literature also references chronic and intractable problems with school-level provision for RE. These are factors that can affect quality of education in RE and will be discussed at various points of this curriculum research review.

RE at different stages of education

Reception and primary years

As at secondary level, arrangements for RE in Reception and primary years are localised.[footnote 15] Most locally agreed syllabuses recommend spending the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes a week on RE at key stage 1 and about 75 minutes a week at key stage 2. Most RE provision in Reception would be integrated within the Reception curriculum, as opposed to a stand-alone subject (see, for example, the RE Council of England and Wales's 2013 non-statutory framework).[footnote 16]

However, the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education ( NATRE) argues that a significant number of schools give insufficient curriculum time to RE, based on responses to its regular primary school surveys. For NATRE, insufficient time is considered to be fewer than 45 minutes of teaching time a week. The surveys have suggested that:

The latest survey did, though, note that, in almost 96% of schools, the curriculum time given to RE had either remained the same or increased.[footnote 17] Almost half of academies without a religious character and almost a third of schools required to teach a locally agreed syllabus had increased the amount of curriculum time spent on RE. These positive changes were, in part, attributed to Ofsted's focus on the curriculum.[footnote 18]

Secondary years

However, using unweighted school workforce census data, the 2017 'State of the nation' report (see Appendix B) estimated that this threshold of curriculum time was only met in:

The report also found that 34% of all academies reported no timetabled RE. Overall, it estimated that, at key stage 3, 64% of state-funded schools gave 5% or more of their curriculum time to RE.

At key stage 4, the report estimated that 5% or more curriculum time was given to RE in 50% of state-funded schools. Specifically, the 5% threshold was met in 45% of schools where the locally agreed syllabus applies (including VC schools); in 91% of other schools with a religious character; and in 27% of academies.

Further, the report found that 44% of all academies reported no timetabled RE. If schools do not teach pupils any RE, this is illegal.

As part of RE teaching in key stage 4, schools may enter pupils for a religious studies qualification. Pupils in England can take either the full course GCSE in religious studies or the short course, which is equivalent to half a GCSE.
Table 1: Religious studies GCSE qualifications in England, 2018 and 2019
The number of pupils taking the full course GCSE has been decreasing steadily since a high point in 2016 when 268,761 pupils took it.[footnote 23] This followed a dramatic increase in numbers between 2009 and 2016.

However, the numbers of pupils entered for either a short or full GCSE fell significantly in the decade between 2009 and 2019. Over this period, the numbers dropped by about 40%.[footnote 24] Many RE teachers attribute this pattern, as well as the provision of RE at key stage 4 generally, to the fact that the religious studies qualification is not part of the English Baccalaureate. Also, the short course was not counted in performance tables from 2013/14 onwards and so its popularity diminished.[footnote 25] This may explain, in part, the decline in overall numbers of pupils entered for a religious studies qualification.

Schools may also offer a religious studies qualification in key stage 5. Schools refer to this qualification by a range of names, including 'philosophy of religion and ethics' or 'religion, philosophy and ethics'. This is because the qualification can include aspects of philosophy and ethics that are to do with religion (see Appendix A for the subject content of the A-level specification).[footnote 26]
Table 2: Religious studies A-level qualifications in England, 2018 and 2019
Ambition for all

A high-quality curriculum is ambitious and designed to give all learners the knowledge they need to succeed in life. This is particularly important for the most disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities ( SEND). All pupils are entitled to be taught RE. Leaders and teachers may, of course, need to adapt the curriculum depending on the specific needs of individual pupils.

RE and the quality of education judgement within the EIF

Within the EIF, there are 4 key judgements that sit underneath an overall judgement of effectiveness: quality of education; personal development; behaviour and attitudes; and leadership and management.

There are a range of different ways RE operates in schools. For example, in some, RE is also used as a vehicle through which to deliver whole-school moral and social initiatives.[footnote 31] As such, RE may take various forms in school, and aspects of RE may sit in relation to 2 different judgements within the EIF: the quality of education and personal development.

The quality of education judgement is about the academic substance of what is taught. It looks at what pupils learn and know in each subject area. The personal development judgement explores how the curriculum may extend beyond the academic, technical or vocational. This may be, for instance, through the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils. It considers pupils' recognition of different people's values, feelings, faith and ways of living. What is learned and remembered by pupils in RE may, of course, contribute to personal development. However, this curriculum research review series is concerned with the factors that can affect quality of education in different subjects. As such, the scope of this review is primarily concerned with the school RE curriculum considered through the lens of the quality of education judgement.

The EIF considers the extent to which leaders of the curriculum adopt or construct a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give learners the knowledge they need to succeed in life. As outlined previously, the extent to which school subject leaders are freely able to choose the content of their RE curriculums depends on the type of school and, where appropriate, its funding agreement.

Many academies have greater degrees of freedom about what to include within their RE curriculums. Schools that follow a locally agreed syllabus will use this as a basis for what pupils are taught.[footnote 32] Typically, the content of this syllabus prescribes high-level outcomes that subject leaders go on to use as they design their school-specific RE curriculum. This contextualisation process is similar to the ways that schools may take high-level outcomes from the national curriculum in other subjects and use them to construct their school-specific subject curriculum. Non-statutory guidance might accompany an agreed syllabus to assist subject leaders in constructing their school RE curriculum.

However, to be clear: it is the enacted RE curriculum, in the context of the school, which is taught to and experienced by pupils, that is considered within the quality of education judgement. The contextualised school RE curriculum is also the focus of this research review.

Curriculum progression

Summary

The RE curriculum should set out what it means to 'get better' at the subject as pupils move through the journey of the curriculum at primary and secondary level. Pupils build 3 different forms of knowledge in RE, which we will explain in this section. In high-quality RE at primary and secondary level, leaders and teachers think about how these 3 forms of knowledge are interconnected and sequenced within the RE curriculum. It is this RE curriculum that pupils need to know and to remember.

Curriculum progression and debates about knowledge in RE

The types of knowledge that pupils build within RE have not been extensively discussed or theorised. In some cases, this is because the ongoing debates about the aims and purposes of RE have led educators to claim that knowledge alone is insufficient for specific educational purposes such as fostering tolerance or mitigating xenophobia.[footnote 35] Sometimes, the very idea of 'knowledge in RE' itself has been avoided because claims made about both religion and non-religion are contested, even though many educators recognise that the contention itself is part of the knowledge content of RE.[footnote 36] Broadly speaking, teachers, practitioners and researchers in RE do not have well-established conventions to discuss the different types of knowledge that appear in RE curriculums.

Although educators make different claims about the purpose of RE, it is nonetheless vital for subject leaders, curriculum designers and teachers to be aware of different types of knowledge in RE. Without this awareness, misconceptions about the nature of religion can be taught. These misconceptions can be based on claims (for example, 'only loving religion is true religion') that are unwarranted by high standards of academic scholarship.[footnote 37] A lack of consideration of the nature of knowledge can also result in pupils' misunderstandings about the credibility of religion (for example, 'science is about facts; religion is about opinions'), as well as the difference between types of knowledge in RE and in other subjects.[footnote 38]

The importance of recognising different types of knowledge is also clear when thinking about the types of tasks pupils carry out in RE. For instance, when teachers plan for pupils to construct a response to a statement or question, there are at least 2 forms of subject-specific knowledge in operation: a knowledge of the topic that is being discussed and knowledge about the mode of enquiry that is being asked through the question.[footnote 39] This is particularly important given different expectations about what constitutes an 'argument' in RE.[footnote 40]

So, although the building of subject-specific knowledge may not be sufficient for every possible suggested aim for RE, it is necessary and beneficial for a range of purposes.

3 types of knowledge

In high-quality RE curriculums, these 3 types of knowledge are not artificially separated from each other. For example, when subject leaders plan a sequence of specific content and concepts for pupils to study, they also need to consider the most appropriate methods that pupils need to know to study that content.

Substantive content and concepts in RE

knowledge about artefacts and texts associated with different religious and non-religious traditions

concepts that relate to religious and non-religious traditions, such as 'dharma', 'incarnation', 'ritual', 'authority', 'prayer', 'sacred', 'anatta' and 'moksha'

Learning substantive knowledge in the RE curriculum

The schema that pupils build concerning RE are important in their lives beyond school. They form part of the basis on which young people go on to speak and to act in society in matters of religion and non-religion. What pupils learn needs to resemble the complex picture of religion and non-religion in society, and show them how and why that picture came to be.[footnote 50] The representations in high-quality RE curriculums will enable pupils to build up a 'mental model' that reflects the global and historical complexity of religion and non-religion (see 'Ambitious curriculum end goals').

Are the representations on the RE curriculum 'collectively enough'?

The EIF considers the extent to which leaders adopt or construct a curriculum that contains cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills.[footnote 51] In subject terms, this requires that the RE curriculum comprises 'collectively enough' of the knowledge and skills that would amount to a high standard of subject education at primary and secondary level. This has implications for the substantive content and concepts that pupils learn in RE, not least because it would be impossible to cover everything that could be covered within RE.

High-quality RE prepares pupils to engage in a complex multi-religious and multi-secular world. To reach this goal, leaders and teachers might think about the overall conception of religion and non-religion that pupils build through the RE curriculum. To consider the overall concept of religion and non-religion that pupils build through the curriculum is perhaps more useful than thinking about the quantity and weighting of traditions to include.

reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain.

Although this prescription is a starting point, it is not a full statement of the substantive knowledge that pupils should learn in high-quality RE. It only explicitly identifies substantive knowledge of Christianity. It alludes to but does not specify precisely what those other traditions are. There are different ways in which the content of high-quality RE might reflect this legislation.

Unfortunately, some leaders interpret the legislation in percentage terms, for example by devoting 51% of RE to the study of Christianity and 49% to 'other religions'. Commentators have noted for some time that this approach does not guarantee a quality RE curriculum.[footnote 53] In fact, it can generate problems. For example, it can unintentionally cause tensions by devoting more time to some religious or non-religious traditions. It can also prevent pupils from exploring the connections between traditions or even imply that there are no connections.[footnote 54]

Equally, simply covering a greater number of religious and non-religious traditions (as inclusive as that sounds) is no guarantee of a high-quality RE curriculum. This overloads the curriculum and might lead to superficial caricatures of religious and non-religious traditions.[footnote 55] Generally speaking, the issue of what might be enough content to constitute a high-quality RE curriculum has been given little consideration in the RE community.[footnote 56]

It is perfectly possible for pupils to get better at RE without knowing all of the different ways that people express religion or non-religion in their lives. High-quality RE curriculums do not require excessive content but do need cumulatively sufficient content. This means that subject leaders should ensure that their curriculums contain collectively enough substantive knowledge to enable pupils to recognise the diverse and changing religious and non-religious traditions of the world.

Are the representations in the RE curriculum accurate?

It is important for subject leaders in primary and secondary schools to plan precise and accurate representations of religious and non-religious traditions in their curriculums. When those representations are inaccurate, pupils end up having misconceptions.[footnote 62] For example, if subject leaders plan for pupils to learn about humanism only in relation to atheism, pupils will not gain wider knowledge of humanism as a way of life.

In RE that does not focus on the nurture of and/or induction into faith traditions (non-confessional RE), the accuracy of representations is particularly important.[footnote 63] The representations should allow teachers to be able to teach accurately without advocating a tradition or ignoring unpleasant manifestations of traditions. This means that subject leaders may have to plan representations that include morally displeasing aspects of that tradition, as well as more agreeable ones.[footnote 64] For instance, when subject leaders plan representations of Buddhist traditions, but ignore all anti-social aspects of the traditions, then the curriculum communicates inaccurate stereotypes to pupils.[footnote 65] Subject leaders and curriculum designers need to question whose version of the tradition is being represented in the curriculum. Constructing representations that are informed by scholarship can prevent unintentional partisanship (see 'Systems, culture and policies' for implications for teacher development).[footnote 66]

Subject leaders also need to be alert to the ways in which the 'authenticity' of traditions can be lost.[footnote 67] Sometimes, subject leaders plan for pupils to learn generalisations (for example, 'Christians believe...' or 'Islam is...'). This becomes problematic when the planned representations give the impression that traditions are given, fixed and stable and do not attend to the fluidity, change and dynamism of 'living traditions' as traditions in transition.[footnote 68] Generalisations might capture a tradition as it once was, but no longer is now. This is especially problematic when generalisations bear no resemblance to the living traditions of pupils and their families. In turn, this raises the question of whether these representations sufficiently prepare pupils for religion and belief diversity.[footnote 69] It is crucial that subject leaders plan well-informed representations that do not present pupils with unsustainable stereotypes and poor generalisations.[footnote 70]

That said, there may be times, particularly in the primary phase, when generalisations are necessary in the RE curriculum. For example, teachers may need to use generalisations to explain simply common features of specific traditions, such as specialist vocabulary, widespread commonalities and shared subject-specific concepts. In doing so, teachers might emphasise aspects of traditions that bind some communities together, such as creeds. As part of using generalisations in this way, simple modifications to planning to make the representations as precise as possible (for example, 'some', 'many', 'majority of European' or 'traditions from South Asia') can add helpful degrees of clarity. Concerns that what pupils learn should be accurate should not be confused with making the curriculum unnecessarily complex.

It is appropriate that pupils might need to build a particular impression of a religious or non-religious tradition, as a starting point. When leaders and teachers think of the curriculum as a journey for pupils, they can then think at what later stage it is appropriate to add nuance. The initial learning of a concept is inevitably incomplete, and can be developed and corrected over time.[footnote 71] Pupils can therefore build more sophisticated knowledge about those traditions at a later stage. Also, pupils can learn why greater nuance in their knowledge is more useful.

As pupils move on from early generalisations, they need to learn the complexities of religious and non-religious traditions. To support this, leaders and teachers might plan for pupils to learn about 'organised worldviews', 'institutional traditions' or '-isms' (such as Judaism) alongside learning how real people (such as individual Jews) live out traditions in their lives.[footnote 72] They may plan for pupils to learn, for example, testimonies from faith practitioners or leaders of organised religious groups that relate to generalisations. Pupils will then learn both the generalisation and an example of the 'living' traditions. This lets them 'test' the generalisation when learning it alongside instances of the 'lived reality' of religious traditions.[footnote 73] This also prevents pupils from making incorrect inferences about how common individual experiences are because it also provides them with knowledge of how widespread they might be.

Accuracy of representations is also important in relation to how the curriculum is constructed and around teachers' questioning (including curriculum 'enquiry' questions). Imprecise questions sometimes encourage pupils to use weak generalisations or unsustainable stereotypes (for example, 'what's the difference between Islam and Christianity?'). Instead, rich and precise questions, which emphasise 'social actors' and their uses of traditions, promote the use of accurate representations (for example, 'how have different Muslims understood Islam's relationship with Christianity?').[footnote 74]

Are representations on the RE curriculum deep, as well as broad?

It is of course important that leaders and teachers try to portray the diversity of religion and non-religion in the RE curriculum. However, attending only to the breadth of knowledge that pupils build is insufficient for high-quality RE. Curriculum leaders at primary and secondary level must also consider the depth of knowledge.

Depth of study prepares pupils with many crucial components of the curriculum. What teachers consider to be crucial components will depend on those aspects of the RE curriculum that are useful 'hooks' or conceptual 'pegs' that enable pupils to approach current and new content on a firm foundation. These components may include specific vocabulary and concepts, pertinent facts, examples, illustrations, and aspects of disciplinary procedures necessary for later study in the curriculum. Pupils need to acquire these components through typical forms of RE content, which are not separated out from their in-depth context. These forms may include:

Often, what leaders plan for pupils to study in depth in the curriculum reflects the traditions that are found in their local area, which may be indicated by their locally agreed syllabus.[footnote 77] As well as this, leaders and teachers should be mindful of global contexts.[footnote 78] To achieve this, leaders can select depth of representations from contrasting religious and/or non-religious traditions. This may avoid pupils developing misconceptions. For example, if depth of study takes place only in Abrahamic traditions (Jewish, Christian and Islamic) and no dharmic traditions, then pupils' schema of 'religion' would be skewed.

The curriculum can relate specific traditions to historical context, cultural settings, sacred literature and ways of thinking and living in the world. Pupils will build knowledge of the rich intellectual and spiritual histories of religious and non-religious traditions, the ideas that gain prominence within them, how they relate to culture and how they have shaped - and continue to impact - the globe. This in-depth knowledge enables pupils to dig beneath the surface of contemporary political and public faces of the traditions. On this in-depth basis, pupils can then explore the historical, geographical, metaphysical and cosmological aspects of traditions.[footnote 79]

In-depth contextual knowledge is especially important when aspects of exams focus on very narrow representations of religious traditions. For example, sacred texts are sometimes used as 'proof-texts' in religious studies exams in England. This can misrepresent centuries of practices about how sacred texts inform religious traditions.[footnote 80] In-depth contextual knowledge ensures that pupils are better informed and can see the limitations of such uses.

Leaders should, however, take care that the knowledge that pupils build does not become overly 'siloed' by how the curriculum is planned. It can be problematic, for instance, when the entirety of the curriculum is composed of units of discrete religious or non-religious traditions (for example, 'Christianity'/'Judaism'/'Humanism'/'Hinduism'/'Sikhism'), without any opportunities for pupils to build towards seeing blurred boundaries and areas of overlap between them. This approach, intentionally or otherwise, ends up following a 'world religions' paradigm.[footnote 82]

Recent literature claims that the paradigm is 'creaking' because it does not sufficiently account for religious and cultural plurality (for example, 'cultural Christians' or 'secular Muslims').[footnote 83] Leaders and teachers might respond to this by planning in-depth study of traditions, but also by including opportunities for pupils to learn that the idea of a discrete tradition sometimes breaks down. In this way, pupils can see the 'model' of an institutional worldview, as well as the reality of how different people actually live out religion or non-religion in their lives.

Sequencing substantive knowledge in RE

High-quality curriculums are coherently planned and well sequenced.[footnote 85] To achieve this, leaders need to consider what prior content pupils need ahead of future content. At both primary and secondary level, the curriculum needs to prepare pupils for forthcoming topics based on content that has preceded them. This is part of recognising that the curriculum maps out the journey of what it means to 'get better' at the subject. This aspect of curriculum in RE has been underdeveloped, although some recent projects have considered how curriculum content maps out developing expertise.[footnote 86]

Our previous research outlined that well-sequenced curriculums are also structured to help pupils integrate new knowledge into their existing knowledge and make enduring connections between content, ideas and concepts.[footnote 87] When pupils encounter new content in RE, their prior knowledge has an impact on what they learn.[footnote 88] Prior knowledge that pupils need in order to learn new content may include, for example, vocabulary, concepts, narratives and/or factual knowledge.[footnote 89]

Sequencing of the curriculum involves identifying links that exist even between very different areas of substantive content. For example, vocabulary and concepts such as 'creation story', 'creation myth' and 'foundation myth' can connect Christian origin narratives with shruti in Hindu traditions, concepts of the patriarchs in Jewish traditions and how all these concepts play out in different people's lives. Subject leaders and teachers might use links like these as part of sequencing the curriculum effectively. For example, leaders can make links between stories about and experiences of different religious and cultural communities in the early years foundation stage with RE concepts in key stage 1.

Another part of effective curriculum sequencing is considering how to enable pupils to move towards ambitious end goals. This means going beyond making connections between substantive content alone. Effective curriculum sequencing might include moving towards global contexts (how religion is patterned around the world), considering models with exceptions (for example, individuals who identify as Roman Catholic but do not believe in God), and adding further complexity and detail. All of this requires rich content knowledge and strong knowledge of connections between content.[footnote 90] Pupils may also develop broad expertise in 'ways of knowing' the substantive content (see 'Ways of knowing in RE'). For a discussion of ambitious curriculum end goals, see 'Interplay, end goals and competencies'.

There is some disagreement within RE literature about the relationship between concepts and building complexity through the curriculum, and how to sequence based on this.

Other approaches introduce highly specific concepts early on in the curriculum.[footnote 92] In doing this, leaders and teachers might plan for pupils to learn similar concepts a number of times in the curriculum at different stages in increasingly detailed, subject contexts. Examples of this at primary and secondary level could be:

pupils studying the concept of incarnation as part of the Christian nativity story at key stage 1, as part of Christian beliefs about the Trinity at key stage 2, and as part of Christian social action at key stage 3

pupils studying the concept of rebirth as part of Sikhi traditions about cycles of birth, death and rebirth at key stage 2; as part of Buddhist mandala traditions (the Bhavachakra) at key stage 3; and as connected to sanatan dharma, moksha and yoga at key stage 4

It is clear that sequencing towards ambitious subject-specific goals requires pupils to build knowledge of significant links and connections between concepts. It is important for pupils to have knowledge not simply of isolated concepts, but of the relationships between them.[footnote 93] Leaders and teachers might identify, for example, pertinent concepts that pupils could learn in a range of contexts and pattern them within the curriculum to enable pupils to make rich connections with them.

The importance of sequencing when introducing sensitive and controversial issues

Though the topics discussed in RE will differ between primary and secondary schools, the importance of sequencing applies equally at both levels. At primary level, leaders can consider the appropriate point within the sequence of the curriculum to introduce social and religious concepts, such as 'death'. They may do this through considering what pupils will have learned previously in other subjects, such as science, about the way that death is a natural process and part of life. Also, leaders can consider how death has been explained in the early years foundation stage, such as through the death of a school pet.

High-quality RE curriculums will prepare pupils with the prior knowledge they need in order to think about and respond to controversial issues in an informed way. For example, for topics such as Christian responses to suffering, pupils may need prior knowledge of distinctive Christian concepts such as 'resurrection' and knowledge of the social and spiritual dimensions of concepts such as 'evil'. Pupils need to possess prior knowledge of concepts such as 'death' and related vocabulary such as 'choice', 'freedom', 'plan' and 'trust'. Some topics in the RE curriculum may also require knowledge from other subjects, such as English literature, history, geography and science. Subject leaders and teachers might order the curriculum so that pupils have developed knowledge of the content, concepts and related vocabulary needed to approach a controversial topic. Without this, pupils' engagement will be superficial.

Also, the representations of religious and non-religious traditions that leaders and teachers choose are particularly critical when it comes to sensitive and/or controversial issues. If subject leaders and teachers only plan for pupils to learn about some traditions in relation to controversial topics, then pupils will build up substantive knowledge about that tradition only in relation to the controversial. They will miss out on the wider context of that tradition's history and different forms of expression. For example, if pupils only learn about Jewish traditions within a topic of the Shoah or about Islamic traditions only within a sequence of lessons on 'religion and terror', then their knowledge of those traditions will be eclipsed by those topics. Subject leaders and teachers might plan broader representations of those religious traditions before teaching about controversial topics.

'Ways of knowing' in RE

'Ways of knowing' is an area of development that is currently emerging within RE. There seem to be 2 main forms of 'ways of knowing' that pupils can learn in the curriculum:

knowledge of well-established methods and processes and other tools of scholarship that are used to study and make sense of global and historical religion/non-religion

knowledge of the types of conversation (or 'modes of enquiry' or 'scholarly discourses') that academic communities have about religion/non-religion

One part of 'ways of knowing' is pupils learning about scholarship. To meet the professional standards of teachers, teachers must promote the value of scholarship.[footnote 101] Leaders and teachers of RE can consider this when asking questions of the RE curriculums that they construct:

How is scholarship valued in the teaching of substantive content?

What do we plan for pupils to learn about how the knowledge in the RE curriculum was constructed?

What do we expect pupils to learn about how accurate, tentative or reliable representations of religious and non-religious traditions are?

What do we expect pupils to learn about how to construct new knowledge, and evaluate existing knowledge, in trustworthy ways?

Considerations such as these lead to a conception of quality beyond learning substantive content. Substantive knowledge may include different claims about reality that cannot easily be dismissed or relativised.[footnote 103] High-quality RE curriculums build forms of knowledge that give pupils the capacity to think about the status of the content.

If the curriculum is not explicit about 'ways of knowing', implicit assumptions (as well as a general lack of clarity) are passed on to pupils about how they ought to approach future RE content. This links to the important question of 'what kind of neutrality' is required in non-confessional RE.[footnote 104] The idea of a position of absolute neutrality when studying religion/non-religion is considered untenable (for further discussion, see 'Teacher education and professional development in RE').[footnote 105] Teachers should be concerned about the accuracy of their portrayals of religious and non-religious traditions as well as concerned about expecting pupils to adopt teachers' own beliefs.[footnote 106] Yet, pupils need to be educated to respond to content in informed, intelligent and reflective ways.[footnote 107] In plural, non-confessional and multi-faith RE, a range of 'ways of knowing' about religion/non-religion would broaden, rather than limit, pupils' educational experience.[footnote 108]

'Ways of knowing' as scholarly tools, methods and processes

Leaders and teachers might plan, throughout the journey of the curriculum, for pupils to develop their expertise by learning how these different methods might be applied to varied and different substantive content. Of course, a school RE curriculum could never fully capture every method, tool or process that could be used concerning religion. Possible tools and methods that pupils could learn about include:

tools for exploring customs, habits and ways of living (ethnography)

archaeological procedures

methods in historical reconstruction

participant observation

in-depth interviews

analysis of relevant data

When pupils learn about these tools through lots of different substantive content in a sequenced curriculum, they learn:

'Ways of knowing' as types of academic conversations

Without this form of knowledge in RE, teachers may spread (rather than counteract) illiteracy about the content learned in RE. For example, ideas about 'proof' and 'truth' play very different roles in scientific conversations compared with religious ones. High-quality RE can play a clear role in developing pupils' literacy about types of knowledge in the world; poor-quality RE can cause confusion and misconceptions.[footnote 118] High-quality RE also helps pupils to distinguish knowledge in the RE curriculum from 'everyday' knowledge, opinions and ideas.

As with specific methods and tools, pupils can learn both:

about scholarly discourses (a receptive expertise)

through the way that leaders and teachers sequence the curriculum, how to participate in and lead the discourses themselves (a productive expertise)

Some curriculum approaches formalise 'ways of knowing' into simplified disciplines, such as 'theology', 'philosophy' and 'human/social sciences'.[footnote 119] In these cases, the curriculum content is framed as if it were considered by, for example, theologians, philosophers or human/social scientists. These can be taught in simplified ways in primary schools.

This recognises that there are different ways of approaching similar topics and different types of questions that can be asked about similar topics. For example, the Islamic concept of the 'oneness' of God (Tawhid) could be approached in different ways at secondary level:

At primary, the symbol of light in Hindu traditions could be approached in contrasting ways:

Pupils can learn different types of conversation (and the assumptions that are implicit within them) about religion and non-religion.[footnote 120] The contrasting types of conversation on the curriculum are key because some preclude the possibility of 'ultimate reality' (or 'realities'), while others do not.[footnote 121] This is certainly important in pluralistic RE, which recognises that there is no absolutely neutral vantage point from which to explore religion.[footnote 122]

The importance of 'ways of knowing' in the RE curriculum

'Ways of knowing' within the RE curriculum is currently an area of development and theorisation for teachers. Focusing on this type of knowledge might improve some aspects of RE.

The over-simplified generic application of terms such as these may suggest a lack of precision in expectations about what pupils learn beyond substantive content.[footnote 125] It may also suggest that teachers are unclear about how pupils should (or even could) respond to the substantive content.

It would be more useful and constructive for leaders and teachers to plan for pupils to learn 'ways of knowing' that are specific to the content. For example, they can learn how to know the extent to which particular beliefs are widespread, or suitable tools for interpreting religious texts, or the criteria for valid arguments in analytic philosophy.

High-quality curriculums in which pupils learn a range of 'ways of knowing' can help prevent over-simplifying or stereotyping religion. Recognising that there can be different 'ways of knowing' brings to light a variety of perspectives, positions and voices. This may also help overcome misconceptions that later ideas, practices and perspectives in some religious traditions are necessarily deviations from an original pure tradition.[footnote 126]

Given that what is presented to pupils in the curriculum is a representation of religion and non-religion, there are scholarly questions to ask about 'who says' the representation is accurate, appropriate or suitable.[footnote 127] Representatives and/or faith leaders of organised traditions (sometimes called institutional worldviews) offer unique perspectives. But the voices of other individual adherents and practitioners (sometimes called personal worldviews) also offer unique perspectives on that tradition.[footnote 128] Both types of voices can broaden the representation. Beyond the substantive content, learning about 'ways of knowing' enables pupils to think about, to question and to discern whose perspective is being heard through the representations of traditions, and why.

Based on the above, high-quality RE may have the following features

A curriculum design that includes 'ways of knowing' as a form of knowledge that pupils build through the RE curriculum. This helps pupils learn about the construction of substantive knowledge, its accuracy, its reliability and how provisional that knowledge is. Pupils are therefore prepared to think in critical and scholarly ways about the representations of religion and non-religion that they learn through the curriculum and encounter in the world beyond.

A sequenced RE curriculum that includes scholarly methods and tools that pupils learn.

Subject leaders and teachers who make good decisions about which 'ways of knowing' pupils need to learn and who match the 'ways of knowing' to the substantive content.

Curriculum impact that includes pupils recognising the type of specialist discourse they are engaging in when asking questions, using methods and making claims about different content in the RE curriculum. This might have been achieved, for example, because pupils have learned how disciplinary discourses construct knowledge about religion/non-religion or how groups or families of methods explore religious and non-religious traditions.

'Personal knowledge' in RE

'Personal knowledge' has been described by various educators as 'knower-knowledge', 'personal worldview', 'reflexivity' and 'positionality'.[footnote 129] When pupils study RE content, they do so 'from a position'. This position is their 'viewpoint' or perspective on the world, which is influenced by, for example, their values, prior experiences and own sense of identity. Through the curriculum at primary and secondary level, pupils build 'personal knowledge', which includes an awareness of the assumptions that they bring to discussions concerning religious and non-religious traditions. The focus on both knowledge of religious traditions and also what that knowledge contributes to the pupils' self-understanding is well established in RE.[footnote 130] This form of knowledge is similar to academic reflections in higher education.[footnote 131]

RE is sometimes seen as a key place in the curriculum where there are opportunities for pupils to consider their own personal backgrounds and influences.[footnote 132] Similarly, in some approaches to RE, the development of this kind of 'personal knowledge' occurs through tensions between their own perspectives and the perspectives of others.[footnote 133] The way in which RE considers this background knowledge valuable, and the way that RE uses it as a basis for personal reflection, is sometimes considered a strength of the subject.[footnote 134]

At primary and secondary level, the most suitable substantive content for pupils to develop personal knowledge will have the capacity to illuminate and to inform pupils' own self-knowledge. For example, content relating to meaning and purpose, human nature, justice in society, values, community and self-fulfilment would have potential.[footnote 136] Therefore, subject leaders need to be highly selective in identifying substantive content for reflection that relates to pupils' developing identities. What they select from the sequence of substantive knowledge should contain plenty of detail about the function of the content and concepts within specific religious traditions.

Learning about concepts such as 'forgiveness' in Christian traditions or 'sewa' ('selfless service') in Sikh traditions, together with rich detail about how they form parts of Christian and Sikh ways of life, provides opportunities for pupils to see how these concepts may relate to their own position.[footnote 137] There is plenty of content that will help build pupils' 'personal knowledge' through looking at particular religious traditions.[footnote 138]

However, not all content is as useful or appropriate to serve as the basis for developing pupils' 'personal knowledge'. Some literature suggests that content like 'static features' of religious traditions, such as the features of religious buildings, provides more limited opportunities for developing 'personal knowledge'.[footnote 139] Perhaps more significant problems occur when leaders and teachers are imprecise in their selections of content. For example, selecting 'the parable of the lost sheep' instead of, for example, Christian concepts of 'searching', 'salvation' or 'rejoicing' (taken from the parable) would not be helpful. In cases such as these, what can be developed is more like personal, social, health and economic ( PSHE) knowledge (for example, 'knowing the importance of caring for others') rather than 'personal knowledge' developed through substantive RE content.[footnote 140]

Based on the above, high-quality RE may have the following features

An RE curriculum that does not induct pupils into any religious tradition (in settings where the EIF applies to RE).

A curriculum that builds pupils' awareness of their own assumptions and values about the content that they study ('personal knowledge').

Precise, detailed and fruitful content (substantive content and concepts) that subject leaders and curriculum designers have selected to build pupils' 'personal knowledge'. Not all substantive content is equally appropriate to select as the basis for developing pupils' 'personal knowledge'.

Subject leaders and teachers who adeptly identify specific content for the development of 'personal knowledge' because they recognise that some pupils may not otherwise see the immediate value of that content.

Interplay, end goals and competencies

This section considers:

how the different types of knowledge that pupils build in the RE curriculum interact with each other (interplay)

what the knowledge in the RE curriculum is building towards (end goals)

how pupils' developing knowledge relates to educational aims that extend beyond the subject matter of RE (competencies)

Interplay of knowledge in the RE curriculum

As the types of knowledge within RE have not been well established, the connection or relationship between them have only recently begun to be explored.

In non-statutory models for school RE curriculums, the anticipated strands of progression are often presented as discrete and the connections between them unclear.[footnote 141] Ofsted's definition of progression is that pupils 'know more and remember more' of the planned curriculum.[footnote 142] For RE, this involves thinking through, in subject-specific terms, not only the nature of the knowledge that pupils study, but also the connections between the different forms of knowledge.[footnote 143]

The substantive content and concepts of the RE curriculum provide the 'substance' that enables pupils to learn 'ways of knowing' such as theories, methods, modes of enquiry and the status of theories and generalisations. For example, statements such as 'religious leaders are often important people in communities' depend on specific content, such as the status of individual priests, ministers, rabbis and other leaders of religion in different faith communities. Similarly, asking a question like 'how have religious groups contributed to culture in the local area?' requires content about the contributions (or lack of them) that religious traditions have made to a specific place. Substantive knowledge is what pupils use to build links and connections.

High-quality curriculums might also develop pupils' personal knowledge through the content that they study. For example, pupils might consider how the insights of religious people relate to the way that pupils themselves see the world.[footnote 144] Again, this is dependent on substantive content. To reflect on others' personal religious insights requires first that pupils know how a religious person might perceive the world. For example, pupils must first know how a concept like 'goodness' functions within specific religious and non-religious traditions before they can see how it may differ from their own assumptions and values of goodness.

Sometimes, 'what pupils already know' refers more broadly to pupils' own background concepts and ideas about religion. This might include pupils' own personal experiences.[footnote 147] The composition of pupils in RE classrooms may differ vastly according to, for example, the local demographic of schools. RE teachers will need to respond to the particularities of the classroom.[footnote 148]

In terms of the curriculum, 'what pupils already know' refers to the prior knowledge that pupils acquire and build through the journey of the RE curriculum. In high-quality RE, just as teachers will be aware of pupils' experiences and assumptions, they will also be aware of the knowledge that pupils have or have not built up through the curriculum. This is particularly important to inform teachers' planning of learning activities (see 'Teaching the curriculum').

Ambitious curriculum end goals

Previously, we introduced the idea of a cumulatively sufficient subject education in RE. One feature of a cumulatively sufficient RE curriculum is the end goal. When constructing RE curriculums, subject leaders need some concept of an endpoint, of what they are building 'towards'.[footnote 149] In high-quality RE curriculums at primary and secondary level, these are subject-specific end goals that are ambitious in scope.

There are curriculum end goals that are useful for a range of aims of RE. For example, one curriculum end goal is that pupils build accurate knowledge about the complexity and diversity of global religious and non-religious traditions.[footnote 150] Another might be that pupils' knowledge builds towards theories about religion/non-religion developed by communities of experts.[footnote 151] Well-considered curriculum end goals also help subject leaders and curriculum designers to select RE curriculum content. For example, they can choose illustrative content that leads to an end goal, which reduces the pressure of having to cover vast amounts of religious and non-religious traditions in their curriculums. Content that is selected to be in the curriculum needs to be precise and purposeful - and ambitious curriculum end goals provide a basis for what is purposeful.

Pupils' education in RE would generally be considered incomplete or impoverished if it did not build towards the global and the complex (that traditions are internally plural and interact with individuals in different ways around the world).[footnote 152] Often, pupils bring simplified views about religion, religious traditions and global issues into the RE classroom.[footnote 153] A cumulatively sufficient education in RE must include the global and the complex features of religion and non-religion because these reflect the lived nature of traditions, identity, belief and practice, as evidenced in contemporary research.[footnote 154] Curriculum end goals that enable pupils to become knowledgeable about global religion and non-religion prepare them to engage in a multi-religious and multi-secular world.

The RE curriculum and competencies

To develop competency in a subject, pupils require a deep foundation of knowledge, structured and organised within a conceptual framework.[footnote 155] This is very important for RE subject leaders and curriculum designers who see RE as directly contributing to wider educational aims beyond the subject. These aims often relate to broader aspects of pupils' personal development, for example how to work alongside people from different cultural backgrounds ('intercultural competencies').[footnote 156] However, if teachers focus on these at the expense of building pupils' subject knowledge, then pupils will be attempting to develop competencies on insecure grounds.

High-quality RE curriculums will already provide many of the components that enable pupils to develop interpersonal competencies. This is important for 2 reasons.

Second, subject leaders should prioritise the quality of knowledge that pupils learn in RE. They need to be aware that teachers may unintentionally distort the knowledge that they teach when intending to promote social acceptance in the classroom. This can happen to such an extent that pupils consider RE to be a form of citizenship or PSHE education.[footnote 159] Teachers can sometimes present overly positive portrayals of religion, which may be linked to the desire for pupils to interact positively with members of religious traditions.[footnote 160] Though these claims about religion may be taught for well-meaning reasons, they are unwarranted and unscholarly.[footnote 161] Subject leaders should ensure that pupils are not hindered from acting and engaging meaningfully in the world as a global citizen because of misconceptions they learned through a poor-quality RE curriculum.

Teaching the curriculum

Summary

High-quality teaching in RE at primary and secondary level enables pupils to remember the intended curriculum in the long term. Pedagogies chosen in the RE classroom (curriculum implementation) need to enable pupils to build the forms of knowledge distinctive to RE. Teachers need to make subject-sensitive, 'fit-for-purpose' decisions about what is suitable depending on the subject matter. In particular, teaching focuses on crucial content that helps pupils to learn the specific topic they are studying and also builds a firm foundation that subsequent teaching builds on. High-quality curriculum implementation in RE comprises classroom methods that are well suited to the full scope of the RE curriculum.

Pedagogical models in RE

This section on teaching the curriculum focuses on procedures, methods and strategies as aspects of teaching. Within the literature on RE, however, 'pedagogy' can have a range of meanings, some of which are all-encompassing:

some RE literature considers pedagogy to be a 'model' of teaching and learning, which includes subject aims, curriculum content and teaching methodology that draws on generic educational principles[footnote 162]

others consider pedagogy to mean the specific classroom procedures, methods and strategies that link to how pupils learn the content taught

Pedagogy in the former ('models') sense, while educationally important, is much broader than the use of 'pedagogy' to mean implementing the curriculum, which is how it is used in the EIF.[footnote 163] RE literature that explores pedagogy as 'aims, curriculum and methodology' is outlined in Appendix C.

Suitable procedures, methods and strategies in RE

At primary and secondary level, leaders and teachers decide how to teach specific content and topics in RE. These decisions about procedures, methods and strategies are part of curriculum implementation. Implementing the curriculum effectively involves considering the teaching methods that will enable pupils to know and remember the curriculum in the long term. If teachers do not consider this, the impact of the curriculum will be weak.

Teaching activities that are clear about the RE curriculum object

When primary and secondary teachers select appropriate teaching methods and activities in RE, they need to be clear about the object of what they want pupils to learn (the curriculum object). When they are clear on this and use it as a basis for decisions about how to teach, they can support pupils to build up rich and diverse stores of knowledge.

As mentioned earlier, schema in long-term memory are interconnected 'webs of knowledge'. Their extensiveness can vary depending on the range of knowledge that is encoded in pupils' memory. Memory of concepts and ideas is often developed through experiencing repeated similar episodes.[footnote 165] This repetition builds up the meanings of complex ideas and abstractions. In RE, for instance, pupils may build up a subject-specific concept of 'afterlife' through encountering it in different contexts, for example by learning about related rituals and beliefs in religious and non-religious traditions. This means that teaching should be clear on what pupils need to learn and should focus on providing pupils with periodic and recurrent opportunities to encounter these concepts.

Once teachers are clear about the object of what they want pupils to learn in RE, they can choose appropriate classroom methods and activities. Methods and activities are appropriate when they reinforce pupils' learning of the object. If teachers choose classroom methods based on other criteria (for example, on whether the activity is perceived to be engaging), then they are less likely to support pupils' learning of the curriculum in the long term. So, the suitability of a classroom activity depends on whether it will introduce and then reinforce pupils' memory of the curriculum object effectively.

to learn about the experiences of faith practitioners (that is, testimonies that could be used as case studies)

for pupils to recognise their own assumptions as they listen to an individual from a faith community (that is, 'personal knowledge')

Given this range of possibilities, it is important for leaders and teachers to be clear about what precisely they expect pupils to learn from the encounter and, importantly, how that links to curriculum goals. Otherwise, meeting faith practitioners may be enjoyable for pupils but is unlikely to lead to curriculum impact.

When RE teachers are clear on the curriculum object, they are able to focus their subject expertise on the classroom processes of, for example:

Teaching activities that are well matched to pupils' prior knowledge

Pupils' rich and diverse schemata lay the groundwork for their future learning. Pupils will draw on these webs of knowledge when they learn subsequent knowledge or carry out complex operations.[footnote 172]

In terms of classroom practice in primary and secondary schools, this suggests that pupils' readiness for certain tasks will depend on whether they have the requisite knowledge to be able to succeed at the task.[footnote 173] When teachers use textual sources and longer reading extracts (such as sacred literature, religious narratives or scholarship), they need to consider whether these are accessible to pupils. Pupils will require sufficient vocabulary knowledge to make sense of the text. Teachers may act on this, for instance, by teaching pupils subject-specific vocabulary before they encounter it in content.[footnote 174]

When teachers plan activities for pupils to make links between content, they need to consider whether all pupils in the class have enough prior knowledge to make the links they intend. An activity around making links may be, for example, a key stage 2 classroom investigation about why a particular individual lives the way that they do. Without sufficient prior knowledge about the topic, it is unlikely that all pupils would be able to make the links between content that more proficient or expert thinkers might.[footnote 175]

Leaders and teachers may take into account pupils' prior knowledge when planning trips and educational visits. Educating pupils about sacred spaces is one way for them to learn about historical and cultural aspects of religion, as well as 'real life' religion through meeting members of traditions. The value of visits to sacred places is enhanced when pupils have the necessary prior knowledge to make sense of the experience.

Teaching activities that support the recall of knowledge of the RE curriculum

Research from cognitive science highlights that the practice of retrieving knowledge at intervals over time helps pupils to remember knowledge in the curriculum in the long term.[footnote 176] Within a coherent and well-sequenced curriculum, there is an emphasis on crucial knowledge, such as particular concepts, vocabulary and other components of knowledge, and on teaching activities that focus on retrieving that knowledge. This enables pupils to retain crucial knowledge over time.

There are many ways in which RE teaching at primary and secondary level may draw on these insights. Again, it requires subject sensitivity to consider what type of knowledge needs to be recalled within classroom activities, as well as the form that the recall takes. Teachers can make fit-for-purpose decisions about what needs to be retrieved from earlier RE content when they think about the journey of the curriculum. The way in which it needs to be retrieved will depend on subject-specific considerations. For example, low-stakes multiple-choice quizzing may be appropriate for getting pupils to recall certain types of content such as vocabulary or concepts. However, this would be a rather blunt tool for recalling stories, where it is important to hold various elements of the story together. In these instances, forms of narration would be much more appropriate ways to recall.

In other instances, activities themselves enable recall. Some examples of these could be:

In ways such as these, teachers construct classroom activities that draw on, and reinforce, earlier parts of the RE curriculum. Classroom activities are optimal when they are specific to the subject knowledge that pupils are learning.

Considering which aspects of the RE curriculum are particularly useful for pupils to learn to automaticity is a key part of removing unnecessary barriers for pupils to learn in RE (see section on 'Curriculum progression'). But this is also important to consider when teaching the curriculum. Just as leaders and teachers might consider whether elaborate or complex tasks can actually distract pupils from learning the curriculum object, so too might they consider whether classroom activities actually generate barriers for some pupils. For instance, some pupils with particular, cognitive-related SEND may struggle if left to determine on their own which knowledge is pertinent and which is not. With some well-intentioned but elaborate classroom activities, these pupils may be left unsure which knowledge to focus on. In high-quality RE, the classroom activities remove unnecessary barriers for pupils.

Assessment

Summary

High-quality assessment in RE uses assessment sufficiently, but not excessively. At primary and secondary level, leaders and teachers make fit-for-purpose decisions about applying different types of assessment, which makes it manageable. This requires them to be crystal clear about what is being assessed and why in RE. When assessment is used to determine the pupils' progress in RE, it is important for the assessment to consider whether pupils have learned the curriculum, since the curriculum sets out the journey of what it means 'to get better' at RE.

Types of assessment in RE

There is no clear picture from literature about the nature and function of assessment in RE, let alone a straightforward conception of what constitutes high-quality assessment. This is partly due to uncertainty about what exactly is being assessed in RE.[footnote 180] It has been claimed that this sort of confusion about the subject's identity has been 'at the start of a long chain', culminating in, among many things, 'unreliable assessment'.[footnote 181]

As a starting point, it is useful to draw on literature that categorises RE assessment into 2 kinds: the 'knowing kind' and the 'personal qualities, beliefs and values kind'.[footnote 182] In this report, we focus on the first kind of assessment because this is appropriate for checking the forms of knowledge that pupils build through the RE curriculum (see 'RE and the quality of education judgement within the EIF'). This may be useful for RE leaders and teachers because, previously, very little thought was given to assessment when planning the RE curriculum.[footnote 183]

Assessment can be used for different purposes in the curriculum. It can be used formatively (assessment for learning) as part of adaptive teaching which, for example, responds to pupils' misconceptions in RE.[footnote 184] Formative assessment is granular. For the pupil, it provides feedback, 'in the moment', to improve. For example, teachers' questioning can reveal pupils' misconceptions about particular aspects of dharma practice. Formative assessment provides a very clear feedback loop for teachers, such that they can adapt their teaching responsively as they implement the curriculum.[footnote 185] However, problems occur when formative assessment (for example, a low-stakes quiz) is used for other kinds of purposes (for example, accountability). The misuse of this kind of formative assessment to generate data for accountability purposes does not provide valid or reliable information about progress. Worse, it also adds unnecessarily to teachers' workload.[footnote 186]

Assessment can also be used for summative purposes (assessment of learning), such as when teachers use an end-of-topic assessment to sample pupils' knowledge from a domain of RE content. Often in RE, summative assessment uses composite tasks to assess learning.[footnote 187] These require pupils to draw on a range of subject knowledge (including different types of knowledge) to construct a more complex output, like extended writing in RE. Summative assessment in RE often ties into whole-school monitoring of pupils' progress and accountability procedures.

When the curriculum is treated as the progression model, summative assessments attempt to determine how much of the curriculum pupils know and remember. This can be done by sampling from the knowledge that teachers expect pupils to retain through the curriculum journey. As part of this, it is important that instances of summative assessment take place at sufficiently long intervals, to allow time for the RE curriculum to be taught and learned.[footnote 188] Given the limited curriculum time allocated to RE, standardised intervals for summative assessments may mean that the curriculum domain being assessed may be far smaller in RE than in other subjects. Leaders can consider whether there is enough time allocated to RE to teach and assess the curriculum.

Assessing types of knowledge in RE

For assessments to be fit for purpose, leaders and teachers in primary and secondary schools need to be clear about what they are testing and why. They can then make decisions about the most appropriate format of assessment (type of task) and when best to do it.

Composite assessment tasks are sometimes used in RE to establish whether pupils have learned the curriculum. These tasks do not separate out different types of RE knowledge and may assess more than one type of RE knowledge within the same task. For example, RE teachers might assess 'ways of knowing' through the ways that pupils use substantive content and concepts to respond to a question. Responses may be in different forms, such as written tasks, presentations, spoken accounts and visual accounts.[footnote 189] These sorts of composite assessment tasks can be used to check:

More simple assessment tasks in RE can be used to isolate portions of pupils' knowledge, such as vocabulary and basic concepts. For example, multiple-choice questions are one way that leaders and teachers might do this. These questions could be useful as part of formative assessment practice, or as part of summative assessment to determine how much of the domain of the RE curriculum pupils have learned. However, they become a blunter instrument when used to attempt to assess 'ways of knowing' or 'personal knowledge'.

Of the 3 forms of knowledge that pupils build through the RE curriculum, personal knowledge is the least straightforward to assess in isolation. There are cognitive aspects of this knowledge that can be assessed. For example, pupils may express the assumptions that they brought to the study of a particular topic or how their own vantage point changed as a result of new content that they learned. But other aspects of personal knowledge, such as the development of personal qualities, beliefs and values, are far less straightforward to assess. There are, of course, pioneering research methods and instruments that attempt to assess pupils' attitudes.[footnote 190] However, these are not of the same order as models of assessment for pupils' progress in schools. As with other aspects of pupils' development, schools are not the sole factor in how well they develop their personal qualities and values.[footnote 191] It may well be that personal knowledge, due to its highly individualised personal, intimate or abstruse nature, might be an aspect of RE that ought to be 'unencumbered' by assessment.[footnote 192]

Relating assessment expectations to the RE curriculum

When leaders and teachers want to know whether pupils have made progress in RE, they are asking a summative question: have pupils learned and remembered the RE curriculum? But it is often the case, both in assessment design and in school practice, that curriculum and assessment are considered as separate entities.[footnote 194] Often, this happens when there is a lack of clarity about the object of assessment in RE.

Effective assessment treats the curriculum as the progression model, so leaders and teachers need to ensure that assessment expectations are related to the RE curriculum. When expectations are not related to the curriculum, assessment can be hollow and can meaninglessly add to teachers' workload.

Problems with using generic progression models in RE

Some assessment models in RE continue to use 'scales', 'ladders' or 'levels' of generic skills to determine progress. Many of these are variations of obsolete assessment models, such as the 8-level scale of attainment that arose from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in the early 2000s.[footnote 195] In these sorts of assessment models, the object of assessment is considered separately from the RE curriculum that pupils journey through and learn. They are not valid assessment models to assess specific RE curriculums. Some educators in RE have highlighted key flaws in them.[footnote 196]

Second, a hierarchy of command words linked to steps of progress (such as 'describe', 'explain' and 'evaluate') creates a second unnecessary and unreliable progression model, removed from the journey of the RE curriculum. These additional progression models are unhelpful because they do not consider progression through the forms of knowledge that pupils build within the RE curriculum. Similarly, applying age-related expectations may appear to be a clear way to compare pupils, but often these expectations do not closely reflect the RE curriculum that pupils are learning.

Problems when the curriculum as the progression model is used inconsistently

Sometimes, summative assessment practices in RE consider the curriculum as the progression model in 'structural' terms but fail to do so in 'substantial' terms. These are some examples to illustrate this:

if leaders and teachers recognise that pupils in Year 4 need to learn and remember RE from the start of key stage 2, then they consider the curriculum as the progression model in structural terms. However, if they do not check in Year 4 whether pupils have learned and remembered that knowledge, and subsequently report to parents solely based on their perceived impression of pupils' learning, then this assessment practice fails to treat the curriculum as the progression model in 'substantial terms'

if a summative assessment in Year 6, such as an extended piece of writing, is expected to draw on previous learning, then the assessment practice considers the curriculum as the progression model in 'structural' terms. However, if the assessment task is poorly designed and does not enable pupils to demonstrate what they have learned from earlier in the curriculum, then it fails to consider the curriculum as the progression model in 'substantial terms'

Relating composite assessment tasks to the RE curriculum

'social practice etiquette' of RE argumentation (general expectations around pupils' expression and attentiveness)

generic aspects of argumentation (expectations that an argument should contain claims, rebuttal and qualifiers)

However, the analysis also indicated a lack of clarity over the substance of what is appropriate evidence, warrant and backing within an argument.

Without clearly framing a summative assessment task by explaining what precisely constitutes evidence, warrant or backing for a particular type of question, the argument that pupils go on to construct will not reveal effectively what they have learned. It may reveal something of the substantive content pupils have learned but would fail to assess what pupils have learned about 'ways of knowing' (how 'epistemically informed' pupils are).

Leaders and teachers can construct suitable composite tasks as effective summative assessments when they are clear about:

the domain of RE knowledge that pupils are drawing on

the type of subject-specific question that is being asked

what is appropriate evidence and warrant for the question posed

Limitations and problems when using exam-style questions

Leaders and teachers of RE also need to be aware of the limitations of, and problems with, applying exam-style questions (such as GCSE religious studies exam questions) in non-qualification assessment settings. This also applies to misusing GCSE assessments to identify curriculum progression at key stage 3.

There are of course general problems when the assessment of pupils in non-qualification RE contexts (for example key stages 2 and 3 or non-examined key stage 4) draws on GCSE exam-style questions. This is inappropriate, not only because pupils will not have had the opportunity to learn the domain of the GCSE programme of study, but also because it (incorrectly) implies that generic exam skills are sufficient to assess the impact of the RE curriculum.

Also, GCSE-style questions can promote the use of textual sources as 'proof texts' to justify particular expressions of living or beliefs.[footnote 201] This would be an insufficient assessment tool within a curriculum that intends for pupils to learn how sacred texts, religious literature and other sources of wisdom can be interpreted within diverse traditions.

The way GCSE assessment tasks are used in non-exam contexts raises questions about teacher education and also about pupils' learning:

Based on the above, high-quality RE may have the following features

Different types of assessments are used appropriately:

Formative assessments can help teachers identify which pupils have misconceptions or gaps in their knowledge, and what those specific misconceptions or gaps are. This can inform teachers about common issues, so they can review or adapt the curriculum as necessary. Formative assessments are less useful in making judgements about how much of the whole curriculum has been learned and remembered.

Where summative assessments are used for accountability purposes, leaders can ensure that they are sufficiently spaced apart to enable pupils to learn the expanding domain of the curriculum.

The purpose of the test should guide the type of assessment, the format of the task and when the assessment is needed.

RE assessment needs to relate to the curriculum, which sets out what it means to 'get better' at RE.

Leaders and teachers can consider whether existing assessment models in RE do in practice treat the curriculum as the progression model.

Leaders and teachers can design RE assessments that are fit for purpose, in that they are precisely attuned to the knowledge in the RE curriculum that they intend for pupils to learn.

Leaders who ensure that assessments are not excessively onerous for teachers.

Professional development opportunities for leaders and teachers to reflect on how different assessment questions and tasks in RE can frame teachers' and pupils' expectations about engaging with religious and non-religious traditions.

Systems, culture and policies

Summary

There are particular challenges concerning RE that school leaders and subject leaders need to consider carefully at both primary and secondary level. There are many different ways that schools attempt to fulfil their statutory duty to provide RE. However, primary and secondary school leaders need to consider whether the RE provision is of sufficient scope (is there 'enough' RE?) to be able to deliver an ambitious RE curriculum.

Although there are clearly strong practitioners within the RE subject community, it is likely that school leaders will have staff members who lack qualifications in RE. School leaders and subject leaders need to consider carefully the appropriate type of professional development to ensure that RE teachers have improved subject knowledge and are well placed to teach a high-quality RE curriculum.

Prioritising RE in the school curriculum

All schools that are state-funded, including free schools and academies, are legally required to provide RE as part of their curriculum (see Appendix A). All schools are required to teach RE to all pupils at all key stages (including sixth form), except for those withdrawn.[footnote 202] The way in which school leaders structure and plan ways to fulfil these obligations in school is one indication of the quality of education in RE.

How the RE curriculum is classified may be another indication of the extent to which a school prioritises RE. Fancourt, drawing on educational work by Bernstein, considers where RE is strongly classified (typically treated as a discrete subject) or weakly classified (where RE might be part of a more thematic curriculum).[footnote 203] Although it is possible for pupils to know more and to remember more of the RE curriculum in both classifications of RE, problems can emerge when RE is too weakly classified. Sometimes, this can lead to its erosion in the curriculum. Some examples of RE being too weakly classified might be:

at primary, a key stage 2 topic approach that provides pupils with a rich historical and geographical knowledge, but has relatively little RE content

at secondary, delivering RE through tutor times, assemblies or in conjunction with PSHE education, or in rotation with other subjects, where the format of delivering RE limits the curriculum that pupils can learn

Having subject-specialist RE teachers can also contribute to high-quality RE. School and subject leaders have to make decisions about how specialist staff are distributed across a timetabled curriculum. Following this decision process, pupils in RE classes are often the ones deprived of a main or specialist teacher. A report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group ( APPG) on RE in 2013 found that, of 300 primary schools responding to a call for evidence, 44% allocated the main class teacher to teaching RE.[footnote 205] The remainder were taught by either a planning, preparation and assessment ( PPA) cover teacher or by a teaching assistant. At secondary, a subject organisation report in 2017 found that whether RE lessons were taught by subject specialists varied considerably depending on the type of state-funded school:[footnote 206]

in schools of a religious character, 77% of RE lessons were taught by a qualified subject specialist

in schools where the locally agreed syllabus applied, this figure was lower, at 58%

in academies, this figure was the lowest, at 47%

If these proportions provide an accurate indication of the current level of specialist teaching in RE, school leaders should consider reviewing how they allocate teachers to RE lessons. If higher-level teaching assistants (for example, at primary) or teachers of other specialisms (for example, at secondary) are teaching RE, this raises questions about whether they have sufficient training or subject expertise to deliver high-quality RE.[footnote 207] Leaders can consider appointing suitably qualified RE teachers as part of strategic planning. Notably, in 2018, the vacancy rate of RE teachers in state-funded secondary schools was 0.6% (below the national average of 1%).[footnote 208]

Teacher education and professional development in RE

At primary and secondary level, pupils should be taught by teachers who have secure subject and curriculum knowledge, who foster pupils' interest in the subject and who are equipped to address pupils' misunderstandings.[footnote 209] Findings over the past few years suggest that RE is not fulfilling this ambition. Although schools cannot always control factors relating to the standards of RE teachers recruited to teach RE, school leaders' actions can impact on the development and retention of RE teachers.

The 2013 APPG report found that about half of primary school teachers lacked confidence in teaching RE and more than half of secondary school RE teachers had no qualification or appropriate expertise in the subject.[footnote 210] The 2019 commons briefing paper on RE suggested that the contemporary picture had not changed significantly.[footnote 211] Its analysis of the DfE's 2018 statistics on RE teachers' qualifications found that of around 14,600 state-funded secondary school RE and/or philosophy teachers, about 7,900 did not have a relevant post-A-level qualification. This means that 54% of RE teachers did not have a relevant post-A-level qualification compared with 26% of secondary school teachers across all subjects where data was published.[footnote 212]

This dearth of post-A-level subject qualifications among RE teachers could be addressed through school leaders' actions and make a difference for current RE teaching staff. In-service subject-specific professional development is important for primary and secondary schools.

There are also other important reasons why schools should prioritise RE-specific professional development for subject teachers. As some literature notes, this specificity is important because teachers' professional identity and teacher professionalism have mainly been discussed in generic terms.[footnote 213] Generic approaches to professional development can be unhelpful for RE teachers because of the complexities involved in the subject. Many aspects of RE can create 'role-identity conflict' for RE teachers.[footnote 214] These aspects might include:

RE is under-resourced, which can also erode teachers' professional identity.[footnote 215] At primary, many teachers view RE as one aspect of their professional identity, and this is significantly shaped by the variability of RE they observe in schools during their training.[footnote 216]

Subject-specific professional development in RE

There is no straightforward consensus on what constitutes high-quality subject-specific professional knowledge for teachers.[footnote 217] Literature suggests that, broadly, it would be beneficial to develop RE teachers at both primary and secondary in 4 key subject-specific areas. These are useful for both RE teachers and leaders, given that it is not unusual that RE teachers are the only specialist teaching the subject.[footnote 218] The areas are:

First, RE teachers require essential knowledge of policy about the subject. They need to be clear about the requirements of the locally agreed syllabus, where it applies. Given the legal requirements behind the RE curriculum, further development of this kind of knowledge would enable RE teachers to adapt their professional activity appropriately in different schools.[footnote 219] Recent literature on subjects in the primary curriculum suggests that part of professional development for primary teachers should involve some knowledge of the history of RE, its current position and recent developments in RE.[footnote 220]

Second, RE teachers require content knowledge: knowledge of the subject that they are teaching.[footnote 221] Broadly speaking, this knowledge is drawn from the academic study of religion(s). Some educators claim that teachers with degree-level religious studies qualifications are the most secure in their knowledge base for teaching RE.[footnote 222] However, given that pupils also build knowledge of 'ways of knowing' in RE, subject content knowledge will inevitably include knowledge derived from theology, religious studies and cognate disciplines. It is obviously key that the knowledge that teachers possess is relevant and sufficient to teach the school RE curriculum, however vast this content knowledge could be. But it is important for teachers to continue developing:

Third, RE teachers benefit from the ongoing development of pedagogical content knowledge: knowledge of how to teach a particular subject or topic.[footnote 224] This requires them to draw on the most pertinent and up-to-date insights on how humans learn, alongside subject-specific principles and procedures of teaching, learning and assessing in RE.[footnote 225] One aspect of this professional knowledge is learning about the impartiality of RE teachers.[footnote 226]

Based on the above, high-quality RE may have the following features

Sufficient curriculum time allocated to RE in order for leaders to deliver an ambitious RE curriculum.

Subject-specialist staffing, so that pupils are taught RE by teachers with appropriate subject professional knowledge.

Access to high-quality in-service training for leaders and teachers of RE to develop their professional subject knowledge.

Subject leadership that can identify high-quality sources of training (for example, through subject associations and organisations) to further their RE knowledge in policy, subject content, subject pedagogy and RE research.

Conclusion

This RE research review outlines the factors that can contribute to the quality of education in RE. This document has drawn on a range of research, evidence and other literature to identify features of high-quality RE at primary and secondary level. As such, it explains the research basis for how we look at RE in schools (where RE falls within our inspection remit). This review is not a simple checklist of activities that we expect to see in school RE, since there are various ways that schools can construct and teach high-quality RE. Rather, it outlines a conception of quality of education in RE viewed through the lens of the EIF.

RE is vital in preparing pupils to engage in a diverse and complex multi-religious and multi-secular society. However, this review has also identified that there are significant challenges that limit high quality in RE, including:

insufficient time to teach an ambitious RE curriculum

school decisions that are not taken in the best interests of all pupils, such as decisions concerning the statutory teaching of RE, the opportunity to take a qualification in religious studies, or early examination entry

a lack of consideration about what it means to 'be scholarly' in objective, critical and pluralistic RE

a lack of clarity on what constitutes reliable knowledge about religion/non-religion, leading to teachers embedding unhelpful misconceptions

teaching approaches that do not support pupils to remember the RE curriculum in the long term

approaches to assessment that are poorly calibrated to the RE curriculum

insufficient development of RE practitioners to address gaps in professional subject knowledge

That said, this review shows that there are well-warranted and constructive ways forward that could support improvements in RE. The literature suggests that many of these are already taking place in the sector in subject communities and in some schools. The significant interest that RE attracts from a range of organisations and associations may also indicate that there is sufficient capacity to support improvements in RE in primary and secondary schools for the benefit of pupils.

We hope that this research review will be useful for all those involved in the design, support and inspection of high-quality RE in schools in England, including agreed syllabus conferences, advisers, curriculum designers, ITE providers, local authorities, local standing advisory councils on RE ( SACREs), other inspectorates of RE, researchers in RE, school leaders, subject organisations and teacher subject associations.

Appendix A: The legal context of RE and inspection arrangements

The legal requirements governing RE were set out in the Education Reform Act of 1988 and confirmed by the Education Acts of 1996 and 1998. Although RE is a statutory subject, it is not part of the national curriculum.

In community, foundation and VC schools, RE must be provided in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus. Parents have the right to withdraw their children from RE and this right should be identified in the school prospectus.[footnote 231] RE in voluntary aided (VA) schools must be provided in accordance with the trust deed of the school and the wishes of the governing body.

The model funding agreements for academies broadly reflect the provisions that apply to local authorities and schools in the maintained sector. Academies that do not have a religious designation must arrange for RE to be taught to all pupils in accordance with the general requirements for agreed syllabuses. In other words, they should also 'reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian while taking account of the teachings and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain'.

In special schools, the legal requirement to provide RE is varied by section 71(7) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Special schools should provide RE 'so far as is practicable', with all children taking part unless withdrawn by parents.

Appendix B: Developments in RE since 2013

At around the same time as Ofsted's 2013 subject report, the RE Council of England and Wales published 'A review of religious education in England'. This was carried out in response to the DfE's review of the national curriculum for schools in England, which did not include RE. Notable was the review's use of the language of 'religions and worldviews'. The phrase was 'meant to be inclusive, and its precise meaning depends on the context in which it occurs, for example in terms of belief, practice or identity'.[footnote 232] This review also included a non-statutory national curriculum framework for RE, which proposed 3 curriculum aims for RE:

The GCSE specifications required:

the study of 2 religions

'sources of wisdom and authority' (such as sacred texts)

the influence of religion on people

common and divergent views

the application of knowledge to analyse questions and to construct well-informed and balanced arguments

The A-level specifications required the study of 3 out of 4 possible areas of study:

In June 2015, a pamphlet by the former Secretary of State for Education, The Rt Hon Charles Clarke, and Professor Linda Woodhead MBE, entitled 'A new settlement: religion and belief in schools' was published.[footnote 234] The pamphlet arose from research by the Westminster Faith Debates and the Religion and Society Research programme. It suggested:

that the whole area of RE had 'suffered' from being treated very differently from other subjects on the curriculum

a list of recommendations, making a case for reform in each area (for example, collective worship, the legal status of RE, schools of a religious character and the RE curriculum)

creating a national RE curriculum in which pupils develop knowledge about a range of beliefs and values, an ability to articulate their own values and commitments and the capacities to debate and engage with others

that RE would contribute to community cohesion and to the countering of radicalisation and extremism within the school system

proposed a number of recommendations, including the idea of a change from locally determined RE to national determination, as it is for national curriculum subjects

suggested that the content of the RE curriculum should reflect the 'real' religious scene, as highlighted through the researchers' findings

argued that the study of the changing religious landscape, including a range of religions, beliefs and non-religion (including what makes up the categories of 'religion', 'belief' and 'non-religion') would make RE more fit for purpose[footnote 236]

In December 2015, the Woolf Institute, based at the University of Cambridge, published the 'Living with difference' report.[footnote 237] This report was the product of the independent Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life, chaired by The Rt Hon Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss GBE. This report:

2015 and 2016

In December 2015, the DfE published guidance concerning the awarding of the religious studies GCSE.[footnote 238] Following the Fox vs Secretary of State case, and concerning the decision not to include non-religious worldviews (such as humanism) as discrete options within the GCSE subject content, the DfE published further guidance in July 2016.[footnote 239]

The guidance clarified that schools and agreed syllabus conferences are free to determine their approach to teaching RE and the selection of the GCSE, where appropriate. It stated that there is no requirement for a school's RE curriculum to mirror the make-up of a local or national population. It also stated that there is no obligation to give 'equal air time' to the teaching of religious and non-religious views, or to 'balance out' the detailed teaching of a religion by teaching, in equal depth, a non-religious worldview.

Importantly, the guidance made a distinction between the GCSE religious studies subject content and the RE curriculum across the key stages. The guidance recognised that curriculum balance, in terms of the content of religions and non-religious worldviews, can be achieved across the key stages.

combined school survey data, data on entries for GCSE religious studies for 2014 to 2016 and school workforce census data for 2010 to 2015 to build up a picture of provision on RE within secondary schools in England

considered a relatively basic factor affecting quality of education in RE: whether or not secondary schools were meeting their statutory requirements to teach RE on the curriculum

found that the level of provision of RE is highly variable and largely dependent on the type of school (see 'Secondary years')

In July 2018, Charles Clarke and Linda Woodhead launched a follow-up report to their 2015 pamphlet, entitled 'A new settlement revised: religion and belief in schools'.[footnote 241] Many of the recommendations made around the RE curriculum were structural, and concerned the setting of a national RE curriculum. Specifically, in terms of the RE curriculum, they recommended that any framework for curriculum be simple and clear and that academic excellence be at the centre of teaching in RE. The pamphlet highlighted that the way that religion is taught and learned in school has changed along with wider culture. Accordingly, pupils need to be taught about the inner diversity of religious traditions, as well as the beliefs and values of those who do not identify with religious traditions.

used the language of 'religion and worldviews', not only as a suggested way to reframe the name of the subject, but also as a way to reframe the content of the subject

proposed that content of the subject reflects the way in which patterns of belief, expression and belonging may change across different worldviews, for different groups of people and throughout history

suggested that existing RE provision often focused on superficial stereotypes of religious traditions, rather than their complex and diverse manifestations

emphasised that it was important for pupils to learn different ways in which religion and worldviews can be understood, interpreted and studied

Appendix C: Pedagogical models in RE

The models can be broadly summarised as:

a phenomenological model, linked to the work of Ninian Smart

a human development model, linked to the work of Michael Grimmitt

a spiritual development model, linked to the work of David Hay and others

a critical realist model, linked to the work of Andrew Wright

a concept-cracking model, linked to the work of Trevor Cooling

an ethnographic interpretive model, linked to the work of Robert Jackson

a deconstruction model, linked to the work of Clive Erricker

Some models have pedagogical procedures, methods and strategies linked to them. Others are more theoretical and offer few practical teaching methods that teachers can use throughout the whole curriculum.[footnote 244]

Some pedagogical models in RE are designed with particular types of RE content in mind. This means that by only using one of these models, teachers may exclude certain content. For instance, the concept-cracking model is mainly designed to help pupils understand Christianity.

Other pedagogical models exclude certain 'ways of knowing'. This means that pupils would develop only a partial perspective on religion. For example, the 'critical realist' model focuses more on truth claims and less on the lived realities of global religion.

Other pedagogical models prefer certain explanations of religion over others. This means that pupils are unaware of alternative explanations. For example, the 'phenomenological' model only considers naturalistic explanations of religion.

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Research review series: religious education

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In religious education ( RE), pupils enter into a rich discourse about the religious and non-religious traditions that have shaped Great Britain and the world. RE in primary and secondary schools enables pupils to take their place within a diverse multi-religious and multi-secular society. At its best, it is intellectually challenging and personally enriching.