Minority subjects in private schools get best results

Small-entry subjects show most GCSE grade inflation as state-school heads face ‘blame’ from students

PRIVATELY educated pupils were the biggest winners from this year’s GCSE grade inflation, figures suggest.

Subjects like astronomy, geology, engineering and economics saw the largest increases in top grades after the Government’s about-turn meant that teachers’ predictions were used for this year’s students.

The subjects which showed the largest increase in grade 7 or above, equivalent to A or A*, generally had the smallest number of entries, data released yesterday showed.

Meanwhile, the subjects which had the least grade inflation from last year tended to be those with the largest number of candidates, such as maths, English literature, religious studies and history, which each have over a quarter of a million entries.

Neil Roskilly, chief executive of the Independent Schools Association, said that fee-paying institutions are more likely to be able to offer a larger range of GCSE subjects than state schools.

This is because they would have a larger staff budget so would be able to hire teachers to lead courses on niche subjects even if only a handful of pupils took them up.

“Naturally, the system has benefited small entry subjects,” he said.

“Private schools are more likely to have full-time teachers for these subjects. For some of the minority languages, you can virtually only find them in independent schools.”

Mr Roskilly explained that sometimes pupils in a large sixth-form college had to choose their GCSES from a finite list of subjects, adding: “It all comes down to funding. Sometimes they can’t afford to run all the subjects.”

The subject category which had the largest increase in top grades of all was “other sciences”, which includes subjects like astronomy and geology. The share of top grades rose from 42 per cent last year to 59 per cent this year, an increase of 17 percentage points.

“Performing and expressive arts” GCSES, along with economics and engineering, all saw rises of 15.1 percentage points this year. All these subjects had fewer than 7,000 entries.

In classical subjects, a category which includes Latin, classical Greek and ancient history, 75 per cent of exams were graded A or A*, up from 64 per cent last year.

Meanwhile, maths, English literature, religious studies and history were among the subjects with the largest entries and had among the smallest increase in top grades this year, increasing by three, four, four and five percentage points respectively.

Colleges and schools are now facing “a lot of hassle” because students and parents “blame” them for their grades, head teachers said.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he was expecting staff to have similar “challenging” conversations with GCSE students over centre assessment grades.

Ofqual yesterday clarified that schools and colleges would not be able to appeal against their own grades if they had decided the judgment was correct at the point of submitting it to the exam board.

It said: “If a student is concerned that any reasonable adjustments were not taken into account when their school or college determined their CAG, they should discuss this with their school or college.”

But a pupil will be able to take concerns about bias or discrimination over teachers’ grades to the relevant exam board, Ofqual added.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “Colleges are still getting a lot of hassle because parents and students blame them for the CAG.

“Many think the CAG is the same as a teacher predicted grade, and do not realise that the CAG methodology was imposed on them by Ofqual.”

He urged ministers to issue a statement to parents and students making it clear that schools and colleges had to develop grades following the Government’s methodology.

“The Government created this mess, and it is unacceptable to leave individual schools and colleges to carry the can now the solution they have put in place has created a further set of problems,” he said.