9-1 Grading

All GCSE subjects studied at TWGGS are awarded at grades 9-1. As you can see, the numerical grades do not match the old boundaries for lettered grades.

• A Grade 4 is the equivalent of the bottom of an old C grade.

• A Grade 5 is the equivalent of the top 1/3 of a C and the bottom 1/3 of a B.  The expectation is that the government will make this the new benchmark by which schools are assessed.

• A Grade 6 is the top 2/3s of a B.

• A Grade 7 is the bottom of an A.

• A Grade 8 is the equivalent of the A*/A boundary.

• A Grade 9 is higher than the current A*.  It will only be awarded to the top 20% of students achieving a Grade 7 or above across the country.

At TWGGS, we hope that the majority of our pupils will achieve between 9-6, with some at Grade 5.

Following the abolition of National Curriculum Levels, at TWGGS it was decided to assess pupils on the 9-1 GCSE scale from entry in Year 7 through to the end of Year 11.  This is to provide stronger continuity between Key Stage Three (Years 7-9) and Key Stage 4 (Years 10 and 11).

As pupils move from Year 7 to Year 11 we would expect them to start at a low grade and steadily improve to a high grade (see table below).

• In Year 7 pupils will enter the school at Grades 1 to 3 in most subjects, possibly Grade U in Modern Foreign Languages, as they may have had very little teaching in these subjects at Primary School.  Over the course of Year 7 we would expect most pupils to progress to a Grade 1 to 3 with some at Grade 4 in certain subjects.
• In Year 8 we would expect that your child would begin working at a Grade 2 or 3 (lower in Languages, Science, ICT / Computing), and will progress to Grade 3 or 4.
• In Year 9 we would expect most pupils to progress to Grade 4 or 5 with some very able students achieving Grade 6 or even 7.
• In Years 10 and 11 we would expect most pupils to be working from Grade 5 up to Grade 8 and 9