Key stage 4 background information

Note: 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 (centre assessment grades, known as CAGs, and teacher assessed grades, known as TAGs). 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. More information on these changes can be seen in the Guide to GCSE results for England, summer 2022.
The KS4 performance measures for the 2021/22 academic year have been affected by our commitment not to include results from qualifications achieved between January 2020 and August 2021 in future performance measures. We have adjusted the methodology designed to minimise the impact of gaps in data for schools and colleges.
Comparisons are made with both 2021, the most recent year, and 2019, because it is more meaningful to compare to the last year summer exams were sat. Given the unprecedented change in the way GCSE results were awarded in the summers of 2020 and 2021, as well as the changes to 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 pupil performance alone. Key Stage 4 (KS4) is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs, in maintained schools, normally known as Year 10 and Year 11 when pupils are aged between 14 and 16.

A new secondary school GCSE accountability system had been implemented in 2016. Some of the headline accountability measures for KS4 are as follows:

• Attainment 8 measures the average achievement of pupils in up to 8 qualifications including English (double weighted), maths (double weighted), three further qualifications that count in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) and three further qualifications that can be GCSE qualifications (including EBacc subjects) or any other non-GCSE qualifications on the Department for Education (DfE) approved list.
• Progress 8 aims to capture the progress a pupil makes from the end of key stage 2 to the end of key stage 4. It compares pupils’ achievement – their Attainment 8 score – with the average Attainment 8 score of all pupils nationally who had a similar starting point (or ‘prior attainment’), calculated using assessment results from the end of primary school. A Progress 8 score of above 0 means a school is making above average progress.