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Fifteen and sixteen year olds in the UK have been told to brace themselves for lower grades than perhaps they’ve expected when the open their GCSE results on Thursday. It’s part of the Government’s attempts to combat the ‘grade inflation’ that they identified over the pandemic assessment period in 2020 and 2021, and it’s likely that it will lead to a surge in grade appeals from learners who haven’t achieved the results they may have been tipped for, and may have achieved in previous assessment years.
The exams watchdog has been instructed to clamp down on the amount of top grades this year after teacher-assessed results in 2021 reached a national all-time peak, and it could see the number of results marked Grade 7 or above (the equivalent of an A/A* a few years ago) fall by a staggering 230,000, according to research by Professor Alan Smithers of the Centre for Education and Employment Research.
At the other end of the spectrum, the number of grades that fall below the standard pass mark (those marked Grade 3 or below, or between a D and an E under the old system) is expected to rise by around 260,000. Speaking to I, Professor Smithers highlighted that whilst students may have felt relieved walking out of their examinations as they were created a little easier this year, but with the grades being lowered, it’s a recipe for disappointment. He also commented that a number of pupils will, as a result of this, be missing out on the minimum grades that they need in order to progress onto sixth forms, colleges and apprenticeships, and that this is very likely to lead to a surge in exam appeals.
What does this mean for learners?
Simply put, it might mean that if a learner is expecting As and a few Bs when they open their results tomorrow, it might end up being a mixture of As, Bs and Cs. It doesn’t reflect on their own skills or the quality of instruction they’ve received over the past twelve months – educators have taken on a herculean task and responded with even more dedication and skill than ever before. But what it does mean is that there might be a little disappointment in the mix for some, and some new paths to consider for others.
As Professor Alan Smithers indicates, this is likely to lead to a surge in exam appeals for GCSE results 2022. This is where a student opens a case for reassessment in order to achieve what they feel is a more fair and representative grade. It’s very unlikely that grades will change by more than a few points during the course of an appeal if they’re even amended at all, but sometimes it’s enough to get learners over the entry requirements for their chosen further education institution.
It’s also going to lead to a number of learners missing out on their college and apprenticeship places, which in turn is going to lead to a scramble for alternative paths from about ten past nine tomorrow morning. If a learner in your life hasn’t got the results they need in order to progress, there are a few things you can try:
- Call the college or training provider and specifically ask how stringent they are about grades for entry this year. They will be aware of the changes that have been made to the grading process, and may be more lenient than they would in other years.
- If chosen courses are a no-go, enquire about other courses that still have places open. It may be a case that they’ll be allowed onto two of their A-Level course choices but have to switch out a third where they got a lower grade, or it might be the difference between a systems infrastructure course and a broader IT and systems one.
- If need be, start looking at other colleges and training providers. Many towns and cities have multiple FE institutions, and they’ll all have different entry requirements, and they too will have places unfilled by the lower grades we’re expecting this year. If you can’t do English, History and Art at your local college, you might be able to do those three subjects at a college that’s a small bus or train journey away.
- Appeal the qualification result – find out more at the .GOV portal here.
- Resit the GCSE – there’s a great in-depth guide to this process from The National Extension College here, covering switching institutions, in-college resits, and adult retakes.
What about Dyslexic Students?
Students with SEN have seen some of the most powerful effects of the pandemic on their educational attainment. Routines have been changed, support mechanisms haven’t easily made the transition between in-class learning and home-based learning, and support has been more difficult to access for hundreds of thousands of learners. Moreover, with not being in class, many students who have dyslexia or literacy differences won’t have had this picked up on by their educators- meaning that there’s likely a fairly worrying segment of learners, especially in the early years stage, who haven’t been diagnosed.
Looking at GCSEs more specifically, this distance between student and support means that some learners with dyslexia won’t have been assessed, diagnosed, and/or had the right access arrangements created for them- and exams may have posed a challenge as they move into them unsupported. And we must also appreciate that over the pandemic, falling reading ages and lack of support have led to many students with dyslexia and literacy differences falling into a ‘reading gap’ that it’s difficult to move out of. As not making progress creates a feeling of low self-esteem and anxiety, learners lose interest in reading and academic attainment – leading to lower grades and lower progress, which start the whole cycle over again.
Why else might results be lower?
Reading ages have slipped over the pandemic. We’ve spent a long while learning in less than ideal conditions, and whilst educators have risen to the challenge in amazing fashion, many learners aren’t exactly where they would have been had the past two years been pandemic-free. We’re also still suffering from the mental health effects of the past two years – child and youth mental health is at an all-time low, anxiety in riding high, and many have been feeling the pressure.
We’re also in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. Although these effects are a little harder to spot, they’re still very relevant to the conversation. If a student comes from a household that’s currently struggling with its income, it can mean that they lose out on certain things. Having to move to a different property means they may be sharing a bedroom with other siblings, and lose their desk or study space. Lower parental monthly income might mean that they don’t have the money for extra study materials, practical supplies like canvas or paints, or even just bus fare to go and revise in the local library. And especially when we’re looking at GCSE-age students, it can quite crucially mean that there’s more pressure to get a part-time job, which can take away valuable revising and learning time.
Simply put, 2022 is a cocktail of influencing effects, and many of them have the power to pull results down by a moderate amount – but opinions still differ in the press and in the cabinet as to what kind and how much of a slip we’ll see tomorrow morning. In a few hours we’ll see the exact lie of the land when it comes to these results, and we can establish a benchmark for the future of where we need to support more, explore more, and really mine into what our students need going forwards.
Good luck for tomorrow- and remember, 2022’s results mean supporting and celebrating those learners who both have and haven't quite achieved quite what they were hoping to this year, as their achievement in of itself is heroic nonetheless. Pandemic learning has been far from easy, and students have been through a lot – whatever their results, they’ve achieved a huge amount.
