This blogpost forms part of a package of A-Level and GCSE results analysis, with funding received from the Nuffield Foundation. View our results day microsite, which shows national trends in entries and attainment for each GCSE subject. Data for 2018 will be available at 9.30am on 23 August.

We’ve heard on the grapevine about some schools structuring Key Stage 4 English in such a way that pupils complete one of the two GCSEs (either literature or language) in Year 10.

Early data published by Ofqual suggests that there were some 30,000 Year 10 entries in English literature this summer, up from 22,000 last year. Meanwhile Year 10 English language entries fell by almost 4,000 to just under 11,000. (Ofqual’s figures cover England only).

Using data from the National Pupil Database it’s possible to see that some 32,000 Year 10 pupils in state-funded mainstream schools entered either GCSE English language or literature in 2017. Only around 200 entered both.

This group of 32,000 pupils represents about 6% of the cohort. Disadvantaged pupils were slightly more likely to be entered early (7.5% in 2017).

And, as the chart below shows, pupils from the upper end of the prior attainment distribution were less likely to be entered early.

So what do their results look like?

The charts below compare the attainment in GCSE English language, and English literature, of Year 10 pupils with that of Year 11 pupils with similar prior attainment. Prior attainment is attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 (KS2).

On the whole, Year 10 pupils tend to achieve less well than Year 11 pupils with similar prior attainment.

Gaps are greater in literature than language, and increase in size as prior attainment increases. In literature, gaps are around half a grade in the middle of the distribution, increasing to around three-quarters of a grade at the upper end.

Which schools are doing this?

Of 3,180 state-funded mainstream secondary schools with Year 10 pupils in 2017, 580 entered at least one pupil for an early GCSE in English language or English literature.

A total of 172 schools (5%) entered 80% or more of their pupils early, and together these schools accounted for over 80% of all the early entries.

Above-average percentages of schools in west Midlands (9%), Yorkshire and Humber (9%) and the north east (8%) entered 80% or more of their pupils early.

And as the chart below shows, the 172 schools achieved a wide range of Progress 8 scores in 2017.

Because only pupils’ first entries now count in performance tables (league tables, to use their colloquial name), Year 10 grades will be included in a pupil’s set of results when calculating headline measures for performance tables purposes, including Attainment 8 and Progress 8.

But because the English element of Progress 8 takes the best of a pupil’s language or literature results, a pupil will have a chance of achieving a higher grade in the other in Year 11.

Of course, the data does not tell us why some schools are entering pupils early in Year 10. Perhaps getting literature out of the way to focus on language in Year 11 improves attainment in language. We might find this in the 2018 data when it becomes available.

This blogpost forms part of a package of A-Level and GCSE results analysis, with funding received from the Nuffield Foundation. View our results day microsite, which shows national trends in entries and attainment for each GCSE subject. Data for 2018 will be available at 9.30am on 23 August.