Parallels and Puzzles: Examining the 2023 English GCSE Results

Exam Entries and Pandemic Impact

One very interesting factor was the increased number of entries from 17-year-olds, over 11% higher than 2022 and, as you might expect, those entries are largely in English and Mathematics, letting us know very roundly that those students who went into Year 10 in September 2020 during the Covid crisis and into Year 11 in September 2021 paid a higher price when they sat exams in June 2022. For English, those figures are an 11.5% increase: for Maths it’s 13.2. Could it be this knowledge from entry patterns which prompted the PMs sudden interest in increasing the focus on maths?

Exploring English Trends

Luckily, no one in the Cabinet has appointed themselves the English Tsar. Perhaps the sharp decline in students opting for A level English over the past few years is part of the collateral damage of the previous one. English Language and English Literature make for interesting comparisons overall. English entries across the UK were slightly higher than in 2019 for both Language and Literature. As we might expect, taking resits and other factors into consideration, the entry is higher in Language. However, the percentages vary enormously. Whilst a very healthy 21% of candidates gained a grade 7 or above in Literature, only 16.3% achieved a similar grade in Language. 74.3% of candidates achieved a grade 4 or above in Literature whilst a significantly lower 64.7% achieved grade 4 or above in Language. How might we explain this and then tackle it?

Unraveling the Disparities

For a start, we might question why the statistical recommendations of comparable outcomes deem it to be so. Why is the glass ceiling so different between the two interconnected subjects? Why is it that historically Literature is outperforming Language? And, in terms of what happens in the English classroom, given that students spend much of Key Stage 3 working on comprehension, learning about similes and metaphors, writing stories and letters and articles galore, how can we explain this disparity?

Investigating Classroom Dynamics

Perhaps it is well worth examining how much time is spent on Literature texts compared to say, develop creative writing skills at Key Stage 4. How much time is spent working on low tariff questions for Language is perhaps also an area to reflect on in the new term.

Gender Disparities in Achievement

When we take a closer look at the data however, another interesting comparison emerges. Female students are outperforming male students by wide margins. In Language, for example, 23.3% of female students achieved those high grades compared to only 14.5% of males. The gap at grade 4 + show us that the ‘forgotten third’ is largely made up of male students. 65.8% of males achieved the 4 or above compared to a significantly higher 77.7% of females. In Literature a huge 80.2% of female students achieved their 4 or above, with 26.2% achieving the high grades 7+ compared to only 15.5% of males. It’s well worth reflecting in English teams on why this might be - especially given that we often feel as English teachers that set texts are heavily weighted towards the study of male authors.

Gender, Grading, and Optional Subjects: A Complex Connection

Indeed, overall, the outcomes at GCSE are marginally higher for female students than male. 71.7% of female students were achieving grades at 4 and above for example, compared to 64.9% of male students, with 24.9% of female students at Grades 7 and above compared to 19.1% of males. Yet, interestingly, when we look at optional subject choices, they show us a very specific gendered picture. Though the core sciences were, as you would expect, equally balanced, far higher percentages of male students took GCSEs in Design Technology, Economics, ICT, Computing and other technology subjects. Far more female students had opted for Art, Drama, Performing Arts, Food and Nutrition, Leisure and Tourism, Health and Social Care and the Social Sciences. There lies our gender pay gap for many more years to come.

Regional Disparities: A Tale of Unequal Outcomes

Most noticeable of all perhaps is the lack of comparability across geographical regions. It becomes patently obvious that the areas of the UK most affected by social deprivation and increasing poverty do not have comparable outcomes with more affluent parts of the UK.

The North East, for example saw 65.3% of its grades at 4 or above compared to 72.6% in London and 70.7% in the South East. Similarly, in the North West 18.6% of grades were at Grade 7 or above and in Yorkshire and the Humber 18.2%. However, London figures were approximately 10% higher at 28.4% and 24.4%. If levelling up is happening, it’s clearly not happening in some of our regions where schools are working hard not only to recruit and retain staff but are also dealing with increasingly difficult social issues, in some cases operating foodbanks and uniform banks within their local communities. If education is to remain a right and not a privilege, the scales of injustice are still tipping too far to enable any kind of truly comparable outcome for all our young people.

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