National headline GCSE results were published for 2023 last week. This saw grading standards return to those from 2019, the final year before exams were cancelled due to COVID.
But although results at a national level were similar to 2019, this was less the case between regions. The 2023 data showed that London, already the highest achieving region, had improved relative to other regions.
This has led the former Schools Recovery Commissioner to question whether the government’s post-covid recovery plan had any effect at all.
The data presented last week was based on published JCQ statistics for England (PDF). This showed the percentage of all entries in all subjects graded 9-7 and 9-4 by pupils of all ages in all types of centre.
This means, it contains data on early (Year 10) entries as well as resits in English and maths.
