GCSEs 2023: Prepare for lower results, Keegan tells teachers
The education secretary also expressed a ‘huge thank you’ to school leaders and staff for their work during ‘a challenging year’ due to strikes and the cost-of-living crisis
The education secretary has told schools to prepare for lower GCSE and A-level results this summer, ahead of results days next month.
In an end-of-term message to school leaders and teachers, Gillian Keegan wrote that while the results for any school “may vary”, it is “likely” schools will see lower results than in 2022, in line with lower grades nationally.
The government and Ofqual have overseen a return to pre-pandemic grading this year, with “some protection against any impact of Covid disruption”.
Ms Keegan also reminded schools today that this year’s approach “has protection built into the grading process to recognise the disruption that students have faced”.
“As in any year, results for individual schools will vary, but nationally results will be lower than last summer and it is likely that this will be the case for your school or college, too”, she said.
The education secretary also signposted schools to Ofqual’s latest blog to explain the context of this year’s results.
The Ofqual guidance says it would be “most meaningful to compare this year’s results with 2019”, the last pre-pandemic series and “grade boundaries might be higher or lower than in 2019”.
Physical exams returned in 2022 after being cancelled for two years during the Covid-19 pandemic, with mitigations put in place such as advance information topics and exam aids to help students whose learning had been disrupted during lockdowns.
This year, students received support for GCSE maths, physics and combined science with the provision of formulae and equation sheets, but advance information was not supplied for any subjects.
GCSE results day is on Thursday 24 August this year, while A-level results day is a week earlier on Thursday 17 August.
2023-24 pay award ‘is properly funded’
Ms Keegan also used her end-of-term message to “assure” teachers and leaders that the 6.5 per cent teacher pay rise announced last week “is properly funded”.
All four education unions currently in dispute with the government over pay - the NASUWT and NEU teaching unions, the NAHT school leaders’ union and the Association of School and College Leaders - have said they will recommend that members accept the pay award.
Keegan ‘keen to get to know’ teachers and leaders
Ms Keegan, who was appointed education secretary just after the start of the school year last October, also told school staff she is “keen to get to know more of you” and work with schools “to make sure every young person has the opportunities they need to reach their full potential”.
The secretary of state, who spent two-thirds of her tenure so far locked in an escalating pay dispute with teachers and school leaders, also expressed a “huge thank you” in her letter to school staff.
She added: “I know that this has been a challenging year and many of you will have felt the strain of the cost of living and industrial action on you and your school communities.”
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