Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic all summer 2020 exams were cancelled. This release reflects the GCSE grades awarded to pupils in August 2020.

It provides information on the awards of GCSEs and other qualifications of young people in academic year 2019 to 2020.

This typically covers those starting the academic year aged 15.

Read the secondary school performance tables for historic information on pupil attainment across all key stages.

Main trends for academic year 2020 to 2021

The main trends for entries and late entries for GCSE, AS and A level for the 2020 to 2021 academic year in England were:

• the total number of GCSE component level entries has increased by 2.4% with just under 13.9 million GCSE entries in 2019 to 2020 and just over 14.2 million in 2020 to 2021 (including the Autumn and November exam series)
• the total number of AS and A level entries has increased by 4.5% from just under 2.3 million entries in 2019 to 2020 to just under 2.4 million entries in 2020 to 2021 (including the Autumn exam series)
• the number of late GCSE entries has increased by 18.8% from 309,040 to 367,060, which represents an increase from 2.2% of total entries in 2019 to 2020 to 2.6% of total entries in 2020 to 2021
• the number of late AS and A level entries has increased by 41.2% from 28,310 to 39,980, which represents an increase from 1.2% of total entries in 2019 to 2020 to 1.7% of total AS and A level entries in 2020 to 2021
• the number of GCSE certificates awarded has increased slightly by 1.1%, with just over 5.4 million awarded in 2020 to 2021 and just under 5.35 million awarded in academic year 2019 to 2020
• the number of AS and A level certificates awarded has increased by 4% from 810,395 in 2019 to 2020 to 843,115 in 2020 to 2021

In 2020 and 2021 the summer exam series was cancelled due to coronavirus (COVID-19) and this may have affected patterns of entry.

User feedback

We welcome your feedback on our publications. Should you have any comments on this statistical release and how to improve it to meet your needs please contact us at data.analytics@ofqual.gov.uk.

Head of profession: Nadir Zanini

Main trends for academic year 2019/20

The main trends for entries and late entries for GCSE, AS and A level for the 2019 to 2020 academic year in England were:

1. The total number of GCSE entries has increased slightly by 0.7% with just under 13.9 million GCSE entries in 2019/20 and just under 13.8 million in 2018/19.
2. The total number of AS and A level entries has decreased by 8.6% from 2.5 million entries in 2018/19 to just under 2.3 million entries in 2019/2020. Total AS entries have decreased by 39% from 237,855 to 145,055, and total A level entries have decreased by 5.4% from just under 2.3 million to approximately 2.1 million.
3. The number of late GCSE entries has decreased by 36% from 486,385 to 305,040, which represents a decrease from 3.5% of total entries in 2018/19 to 2.2% of total entries in 2019/20.
4. The number of late AS and A level entries has decreased by 44.6% from 51,115 to 28,305, which represents a decrease from 2.0% of total entries in 2018/19 to 1.2% of total AS and A level entries in 2019/20.
5. The number of GCSE certificates awarded has increased slightly by 0.8%, with just over 5.3 million awarded in 2018/19 and just under 5.35 million awarded in academic year 2019/20.
6. The number of AS level certificates awarded has decreased by 33.5% from 120,520 to 80,110 and the number of A level certificates has decreased by 2.5% from 749,285 to 730,285.

In 2020 the summer exam series was cancelled in order to help limit the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and this may have affected patterns of entry.

Due to the cancellation of exams in summer 2020, many of the more common instances of malpractice, such as taking unauthorised material into an examination, could not happen this year. As a result, the number of penalties issued by exam boards for malpractice cases has been very small. As a full analysis and description of these very small numbers would not have been meaningful, we are instead presenting a summary of main trends for this statistical release. However, a detailed breakdown of the figures is available in the accompanying data tables.

Main trends

The main trends in malpractice in GCSE, AS and A level for the summer 2020 exam series were:

1. There were 20 penalties issued to students in 2020, down from 3,040 in 2019, representing a very small proportion of the 15,901,075 total entries this year.
2. There were 15 penalties issued to school or college staff in 2020, down from 430 in 2019. This involves a very small proportion of the total number of staff in England (https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/c6c4cb4c-20e6-425c-8e83-d0d44a538f5f">nearly 350,000 in state-funded secondary schools alone).
3. There were 15 penalties issued to schools or colleges in 2020, down from 135 in 2019, involving less than 0.003% of centres.

New categories of penalty and offence were introduced in 2020, to capture malpractice cases related to the centre assessment grade process put in place due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These new categories were bias or discrimination, and negligence (types of offences), and referral to Teaching Regulation Agency (type of penalty). Of these, some cases of bias or discrimination were reported, but all of these cases were still ongoing at the time of data being submitted to Ofqual and may not lead to a penalty being imposed. As such, they are not included in the numbers of penalties reported above or in the data tables.

User feedback

We are keen to hear your views on our publications. Please send any comments on this statistical release and how to improve it to meet your needs to data.analytics@ofqual.gov.uk.

The school and college performance tables report the results of pupils at the end of key stage 4 (KS4) in secondary schools.

We are not publishing attainment data impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19) at the school and college level. For this year, data will only include:

• GCSE exam subject entries by pupils at the end of KS4 in 2021

• destinations of students after completing KS4

Due to the cancellation of exams in summer 2020, many of the more common instances of malpractice, such as taking unauthorised material into an examination, could not happen.

In 2021, although the summer exam series was cancelled, centres could devise their own assessments to use as evidence to support awarding. The grading process could therefore be potentially undermined by malpractice in a similar way to a normal year. For example, non-engagement with quality assurance processes by centres, bias or discrimination by centre staff or attempts by students to gain an unfair advantage during the centre’s process could amount to malpractice, and centres were asked to report these occurrences to awarding organisations.

As a result of the cancellation of exams, the number of penalties issued by exam boards for malpractice cases in summer 2020 and summer 2021 is very small. As a full analysis and description of these very small numbers would not have been meaningful, we are instead presenting a summary of main trends for this statistical release. However, a detailed breakdown of the figures is available in the accompanying data tables.

Main trends

The main trends in malpractice in GCSE, AS and A level for the summer 2021 exam series were:

1. There were 295 penalties issued to students in summer 2021, up from 20 in 2020, representing a very small proportion of the 16,184,620 total component level entries this summer.
2. There were 35 penalties issued to school or college staff in 2021, up from 25 in 2020. This involves a very small proportion of the total number of staff in England (https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/e981b8ba-63c0-428b-8c40-a7ae528caf69">nearly 355,000 in state-funded secondary schools alone).
3. There were fewer than 5 penalties issued to schools or colleges in 2021, down from 15 in 2020.

New categories of offence (bias or discrimination, and negligence) and penalty (referral to Teaching Regulation Agency) were introduced in 2020, to capture malpractice cases related to the centre assessment grade process put in place due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Of these, some allegations of bias or discrimination were reported in 2020, but none of these cases resulted in a penalty being imposed (e.g., due to a lack of evidence to substantiate the allegation). As such, they are not included in the numbers of penalties reported above or in the data tables. In 2021 teachers were asked to make judgements supported by evidence, and therefore the potential for bias and discrimination may have been lessened. No allegations of bias or discrimination, or negligence, were reported to Ofqual by the exam boards in summer 2021.

User feedback

We are keen to hear your views on our publications. Please send any comments on this statistical release and how to improve it to meet your needs to data.analytics@ofqual.gov.uk.

Head of profession: Nadir Zanini

Main trends

1. There were 11.6K available qualifications with certificates in academic year 2019 to 2020 (October 2019 to September 2020), a 5% decrease on the previous year.
2. There were 10.3 million certificates awarded in GCSE, AS, A level and vocational and other qualifications available for award in England over the academic year 2019 to 2020.
3. The number of certificates fell by 12% compared to the previous year. Many assessments, predominantly occupational qualifications, were cancelled or delayed in spring and summer 2020 due to the measures put in place in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The trends seen in this year may have been affected as a result.
4. More than half (59%) of all certificates awarded this year were in GCSE, AS, A levels. This is 8% higher than last year when the share of GCSE, AS, and A levels was nearly the same as vocational and technical qualifications.
5. The awarding organisations with the largest market shares in academic year 2019 to 2020 were AQA (36%), Pearson (23%), City and Guilds (7%) and OCR (6%); the rest of the awarding organisations accounted for 28% market share.

User feedback

We welcome your feedback on our publications. Should you have any comments on this statistical release and how to improve it to meet your needs please contact us at data.analytics@ofqual.gov.uk.

Please note that the responses presented in this report do not relate to the exceptional arrangements being put in place this year in response to coronavirus (COVID-19). They refer only to the normal arrangements in place in 2019.

Overall confidence in GCSE, AS/A level and Applied General qualifications

• There was an increase in overall composite confidence in GCSEs and Applied General qualifications between waves 17 and 18. Overall confidence in AS/A levels remained consistent.
• Overall composite confidence was highest for AS/A level qualifications, followed by GCSEs and Applied General qualifications, in that order.
• Among employers, there was an increase in confidence in both GCSEs and AS/A levels between waves 17 and 18. Meanwhile, for parents there was an increase in confidence in AS/A levels and Applied General qualifications.
• Among head teachers, composite confidence in AS/A levels decreased compared with wave 17.

Further analysis is available in the main report for:

• composite confidence measure
• perceptions of GCSEs
• perceptions of AS/A levels
• perceptions of Applied General qualifications
• GCSE 9 to 1 grading scale
• the review of marking, moderation and appeals against results for GCSE and AS/A levels
• special consideration and reasonable adjustments for GCSE, AS and A levels
• malpractice for GCSE, AS and A levels
• appeals against results for Applied General qualifications
• malpractice for Applied General qualifications
• innovations