Graham Cumming

Grade distributions for those students taking Maths but not Further Maths look similar to those for Chemistry

Looking forward to seeing what white working-class maths looks like

In LEUCHARS news
#LargeDataSet

New V-level courses to be brought in for students after GCSEs Ministers say new vocational courses will simplify the

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... If government are after parity of esteem for vocational quals, the process could be kickstarted by rebadging some A levels as V levels - for instance: Engineering, Business Studies, Law, Psychology, D&T, maybe some of the art subjects like Graphic Communication, etc

2025 ones are available, though AQA appear to have skipped 2024

That protest was held in Embankment Gardens round the back of the Strand offices. Pretty rowdy

Who could ever forget Kate the Photographer?

sinh

They then mangled their communications with contradictory statements about what was an intended paper and what was a replacement paper. Silence is the best option for Pearson at this point since any explanation (especially now) for what happened won’t be a very convincing one

2/2

Owing to a continuity/QA failure, Pearson didn’t realise Papers 1 and 2 for 2025 had been closely modelled on the 2022 papers until Paper 1 was sat. They then withdrew Paper 2 and replaced it (though not the modified versions) with, probably, the Paper 2 intended for 2026, so not a perfect fit

1/2

COCR is owned by a big publisher these days

It did, but Pearson dodged a bullet on that one

Only proper artisans can do that

Not long now until the least needed exam in England - the GCSE Maths resit at Higher tier, required by only ~1000 students. Good thing we’ve got four exam boards on the case, producing 11 different exam papers for it!

Good to see a current version of this ever-popular table (thanks Matt Man). You can assume, though, that many of the 9/A* students also took Further Maths

Unlikely to happen but if it’s about parity of esteem for vocational quals, the process could be kickstarted by rebadging some A levels as V levels - for instance: Engineering, Business Studies, Law, Psychology, D&T, maybe some of the art subjects like Graphic Communication, etc

Endless resits of maths and English to be scrapped in GCSE reform Review of assessments is expected to suggest that the government create alternative routes for pupils who repeatedly fail core subjects

Resits aren’t endless - whether you get grade 4 or not, they come to an end www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

And yet a few (well, 2%) confound the doubters. Isn’t Functional Maths supposed to be the alternative, though? If not that, what else?

How many pupils resit English and maths? - FFT Education Datalab Although it is a requirement that pupils who do not achieve grade 4 in English (or maths) at GCSE continue to study English (or maths) post-16 by no means all of them enter a qualification.

Some interesting data on English and Maths resits - shows that very few students who achieved grades 1 or 2 for GCSE Maths go on to resit and achieve grade 4 or above ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2025/09/how-...

Try here: qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/...

The anomalies here are Computing and Physics where the top grades are dominated by those students who also do Further Maths; maybe single maths isn’t always enough

Want to get serious about your A level results? Get serious about maths. Students who do maths at A level do better overall in all other subjects

You need to stay off the bbc eclair Ning

Table 7 at the link has that data (though for all entries rather than just Year 11, so including many re-sits at Foundation tier. Pearson had 55% Higher tier for Year 11, but AQA and OCR don’t make that data available)

Venn diagrams showing some STEM combinations of three A levels (including Maths & Further Maths) chosen by 18-year old students, and outcomes compared to those nationally

Venn diagrams showing some STEM combinations of three A levels chosen by 18-year old students, and outcomes compared to those nationally

Don’t get them started on trigonometry

With new students arriving in Year 12, remember you can find out their GCSE Maths grade and raw score, and even breakdown of their marks (very useful for resit students!)

Search Pearson for "Retrieve Incoming Learners" and read my blog at robotmaths.blogspot.com/2022/08/gett...

The table came from a fairly manual task of checking the 100 possible grade pairs (starting with 9/9):

The Guardian view on GCSE resits: admitting the problem is just the first step | Editorial Editorial: The low pass rate in compulsory retakes is one of many challenges in 16-19 education

Surprised to discover there’s calculus in the current GCSE Maths www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...