Mar32017

GCSE 9 to 1 grades

HM Government
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The new GCSE 9 to 1 grades

The new 9 to 1 GCSE grades

The vast majority of students taking GCSEs in England in 2019 will receive grades from 9 to 1. Students taking 5 lesser-taught GCSE subjects (Biblical Hebrew, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese and Turkish) will receive letter grades in 2019 before they become numerical (9 to 1) in 2020.

9 things to know about the new GCSE grades

  1. GCSEs in England have been reformed and are graded with from 9 to 1, with 9 being the highest grade.
  2. GCSE content is more challenging.
  3. Fewer grade 9s are be awarded than A*s.
  4. The new grades are being brought in to signal that GCSEs have been reformed and to better differentiate between students of different abilities.
  5. In the first year each new GCSE subject has been introduced, broadly the same proportion of students get a grade 4 or above as would have got a grade C or above in the old system.
  6. These changes are only happening in England. Wales and Northern Ireland are not introducing the new 9 to 1 grading scale as part of their changes to GCSEs.
  7. English language, English literature and maths were the first to be graded from 9 to 1 in 2017.
  8. Another 20 subjects had 9 to 1 grading in 2018, with most others following in 2019. During this transition, students received a mixture of letter and number grades.
  9. You can see how the 9 to 1 grades compare with the A* to G scale in our GCSE grading postcard.

GCSE science

GCSEs for science have changed in England. Students taking separate science GCSEs now get a grade from 9 to 1 in each subject. Combined science draws content from all three subjects and students receive an award worth two GCSEs, consisting of two equal or adjacent grades.

5 things to know about combined science GCSEs

  1. Students taking separate science GCSEs get a grade from 9 to 1 for each subject, with 9 being the highest grade.
  2. Students studying combined science receive an award worth two GCSEs, consisting of two equal or adjacent grades from 9 to 1 (9-9, 9-8, 8-8, 8-7, 7-7…to 1-1).
  3. If the numbers are different, the highest number will always be reported on the left.
  4. Students do at least 8 practical activities (16 for combined science) covering specific apparatus and techniques.
  5. Exam questions about practical work make up at least 15% of the total marks for the qualification.

More information

We’ve got lots of information to help students, parents, teachers and businesses understand the changes. You can:

And if you’ve got any questions, drop us an email at public.enquiries@ofqual.gov.uk or give us a call on 0300 303 3344.

Published 3 March 2017
Last updated 6 August 2019 + show all updates

  1. Updated to reflect that we are in the third year of GCSE reforms.
  2. Article now shows the updated video.
  3. Added results day guides for students and parents.
  4. First published.

Mar32017

Yemen: UN migration agency reports displacement spike in Taiz Governorate

UN – Top News Stories
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3 March 2017 – With nearly 274,000 people displaced, Yemen’s Taiz is now among the crisis-torn country’s top five hosting governorates for such populations, a United Nations report has found.

For nearly 20 months, Taiz has been the centre of intense ground clashes, military confrontations and aerial strikes between warring parties in Yemen.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has initiated a system to track displacement from the major port city of Al Mokha, as accurate data is essential to plan an effective, efficient and impactful humanitarian response.

So far, at least 25,000 individuals have been reported as displaced from Al Mokha, according to IOM.

“This much-needed data has enabled the entire humanitarian community in Yemen to increase the amount and accuracy of vital support and protection it provides to affected populations,” said IOM Yemen Chief of Mission Laurent de Boeck in a press release.

Since the start of the conflict in March 2015, IOM has tracked up to 426,672 internally displaced persons and 78,258 returnees in the governorate of Taiz.

Earlier this week, Stephen O’Brien, the UN Emergency Coordinator, who is currently undertaking a mission in Yemen said that in an around Ibb and Taiz, he had met with families to hear their horrific stories of displacement.

“Running from violence, bombings and shelling, these people from Taiz and Mocha had left with nothing. It is now ordinary Yemenis, host communities and humanitarian actors providing lifesaving assistance and protection,” he said in a news release, stressing that with so many people malnourished and sick, aid is not enough.

“One thing is clear, though: there are no military solutions to this terrible conflict. Only sustainable peace can bring about the solutions, hope and future of Yemenis. I call on all parties to the conflict to come together and make peace. That is the best humanitarian assistance,” he said.