Congratulations to all the young people who got their GCSE results today.
While the mainstream media attention will likely be showing lots of pictures of Year 11s hugging or other such images (Teacher Tapp bingo anyone?) I am going to give my first impression of results from the latest National Reference Test – which were also published today.
What is the National Reference Test?
Since 2017, Ofqual has tested a large sample of Year 11s in English and mathematics around February/March time – just a few months before their GCSEs. As a similar pool of test questions are used each time the test is conducted. It therefore provides our best means of comparing the mathematics and English Language skills of 15/16-year-olds over time.
