State of Education Report 2017 state-of-education-booklet-Final-WEB | Page 21

9 to 1 grading: employer confusion
More than eight in 10 (85%) secondary
school leaders think that pupils sitting
GCSEs under the new grading system
will be disadvantaged by employers’
lack of knowledge of the new system.
Questions around the reformed GCSEs might well continue beyond
the school gates, now that the previous A* to G grading structure is
being replaced by the numerical 9 to 1 system.
More than four-fifths (85%) of secondary school leaders worry that
pupils will be disadvantaged by employers’ lack of knowledge of this
new system.
Nearly nine in 10 (88%) school leaders across both phases already
“Too much focus is placed on academic testing as a
measure of pupils’ success”
think that too much focus is placed on academic testing as a measure
of pupils’ success: this focus becomes yet more problematic for pupils’
2%
prospects if their future employers do not understand what academic
success looks like.
4%
3%
3%
“Assessment has been drastically changed and poorly
Strongly agree
Tend to agree
applying for apprenticeships, companies are phoning me to ask Neither agree nor disagree
have letter grades. They have absolutely no idea of the new
grading system and what it actually means. They just want to
Tend to disagree
Strongly disagree
why English and maths have numbers and the other subjects
communicated … As we get closer to summer, and our pupils are
Don’t know
know what number equates to a C!”
Secondary school leader
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