GCSE Maths results day 2024

How nice is it to have returned to a ‘normal’ school year? (If there ever was such a thing!). We’re seeing the remnants of the response to the pandemic gradually fading with a return to pre-COVID standards.

I left the classroom at Easter, and I’m experiencing all the feelings that I did for the preceding 16 years. It always felt a little bit like Christmas Eve – the excitement of unwrapping presents as a child, and the anxiety of finding out whether you bought the right colour T-shirt as a parent. I hope that the learners I worked with this year achieve their potential and go on to be successful in all that they do.

Congratulations

On that note, I’d like to congratulate every learner receiving their results this summer for their hard work and resilience over the last 5 years, as well as every teacher for their incredible work in supporting their learners to achieve their potential.

Higher attainment

Last summer we unveiled our new approach to GCSE papers and this summer’s exams have shown further improvement in average student attainment at the Foundation Tier, and a significant improvement on both summer 2022 and 2023 on the Higher Tier.

Students who sit AQA mathematics exams are more successful this summer, with both Tiers achieving significantly higher marks than in 2022, despite the absence of advance information.

Deserved grades

An improvement in student attainment also leads to a slight increase in grade boundaries, and we’re on the right track to finding the consistency that we held before the improvements in accessibility. These can be seen in comparison to summer 2023.

Accessible questions

The new style of papers is starting to bear fruit, and the questions that we’re setting are allowing learners to show what they know in terms of mathematics. Learners are responding well to the adjusted questions, and this was particularly noticeable across these questions: