Regulation

November 2023 and January 2024 Data Exchange Procedures

Updated 28 November 2023

Applies to England

The following procedures outline the approach that must be taken by awarding organisations to setting specified levels of attainment (“awarding”), and the data that must be provided, during the data exchange for GCSE and Project qualifications in relation to the assessment series held during November 2023 and January 2024.

The requirements in this document apply to GCSE qualifications in English language and mathematics and to extended project qualifications^{[footnote 1]}.

This is a Regulatory Document under Condition B7 of the General Conditions of Recognition ^{[footnote 2]}(October 2020): Compliance with Regulatory Documents.

In addition –

1. a. in relation to GCSE qualifications, this document sets requirements under Condition GCSE3.1 and GCSE9.1 of the GCSE Qualification Level Conditions^{[footnote 3]};
2. b. in relation to extended project qualifications, this document sets requirements under Condition Project3.1^{[footnote 4]}.

Awarding requirements – GCSE English language and mathematics

1. 1. The aim of awarding for GCSE English language and mathematics in the November series is to align with summer 2023. Awarding will be based on examiner judgement and other available sources of evidence.

Approach to awarding

1. 2. An awarding organisation must ensure that persons involved in the setting of specified levels of attainment for its GCSE Qualifications in the November series (“awarders”) are adequately briefed in line with the requirements set out below and the ‘Briefing document for awarders’ prepared by Ofqual.

2. 3. An awarding organisation must adhere to the following requirements in its approach to awarding in the November series for each GCSE Qualification –

   1. a. Awarding must seek alignment, as far as possible, with summer 2023 – noting that, due to differences in the cohorts, the actual cumulative percentage outcomes at each specified level of attainment (“grade”) will likely differ relative to those in summer 2023.

   2. b. Awarders must seek to maintain the performance standard at each key grade demonstrated by Learners taking the relevant qualification in summer 2023. At grades 7, 4 and 1 (see below regarding grade 9), awarders must review archive work from summer 2023 at each key grade. The starting point for awarders is to review scripts that align with the summer 2023 Qualification level grade boundaries at each key grade, unless there is compelling evidence to suggest otherwise.

   3. c. An awarding organisation must take into account the Level of Demand of the November series question papers (relative to summer 2023) and any other available evidence to inform awarding judgements. Any differences in Level of Demand of the question papers might suggest that the boundaries in the November series should be in a different position relative to the grade boundaries in summer 2023. This might include instances where there has been a deliberate attempt to change the Level of Demand of the question paper.

3. 4. In reviewing the available script evidence, an awarding organisation must review scripts at individual Component level, where appropriate, and where it does so, must consider the balance of attainment across Components, including how the outcomes on different Components have been balanced in previous series.

4. 5. For tiered GCSE qualifications, an awarding organisation must consider the outcomes of test equating (chained equi-percentile or nominal weights method) to support comparability between tiers at grades 4 and 5, where there are sufficient entries on each tier and it is appropriate to do so. In general, the chained equi-percentile method should be used where there are more than 250 Learners at each tier. Where there are 250 or fewer Learners at one or both tiers, the nominal weights method could be used. For specifications with very small entries, it may not be possible to use test equating.

5. 6. Where there is evidence that maintaining the qualification level grade boundaries from summer 2023 would not maintain the performance standard from summer 2023, awarders should review further scripts at higher or lower marks, as appropriate.

6. 7. An awarding organisation must record a rationale for its decisions, regardless of the position of the final recommended boundaries. This should include evidence to support its qualitative judgements in terms of the scripts that have been reviewed.

7. 8. An awarding organisation must raise any concerns with Ofqual and other awarding organisations at the twice weekly teleconferences that are scheduled throughout the awarding period.

Grade 9 at GCSE

1. 9. An awarding organisation must ensure alignment with summer 2023 at grade 9, as far as possible. The requirements below apply to the qualification level grade boundaries.

2. 10. Where an awarding organisation recommends a grade 7 boundary that aligns with the grade 7 boundary from summer 2023, the grade 9 boundary must initially be set as the same mark as the grade 9 boundary from summer 2023.

3. 11. Where an awarding organisation recommends a grade 7 boundary that does not align with the grade 7 boundary from summer 2023, the grade 9 boundary must initially be set the same number of marks above or below the grade 9 boundary from summer 2023, that the recommended grade 7 boundary is above or below the grade 7 boundary in summer 2023.

4. 12. In all cases, a review of the available script evidence must be conducted. If this review suggests that the grade 9 boundary should be set at a different mark, an awarding organisation must ensure that the report on the award provides evidence to justify the final boundary mark recommended.

Higher tier grade 3 at GCSE

1. 13. When awarding a tiered GCSE Qualification, an awarding organisation should provisionally set the higher tier grade 3/U boundary arithmetically, in accordance with the Qualification Level Conditions. This should be the recommended grade boundary unless there is compelling evidence to set the boundary at a different mark.

Foundation tier grade 5 at GCSE

1. 14. When awarding a tiered GCSE Qualification, an awarding organisation should provisionally set the foundation tier grade 5/4 boundary arithmetically, in accordance with the Qualification Level Conditions. The 5/4 boundary should be adjusted as necessary using statistical and technical evidence to align with the standard of grade 5 at the higher tier.

Inter-awarding organisation alignment

1. 15. Given the reliance on judgement rather than statistical methods in the November series, the risks to inter-awarding organisation alignment of standards are higher than would usually be the case. To mitigate these risks, awarding organisations must share the rationale for their awarding decisions with one another following each award where there are concerns regarding inter-awarding organisation alignment. These concerns may be raised either by an awarding organisation during the twice weekly teleconferences, or by Ofqual. Each awarding organisation must have regard to the evidence provided by other awarding organisations ahead of finalising their own awards.

Review of outcomes

1. 16. Ofqual will consider the outcomes of each award based on the data provided as part of these procedures, and in the context of the approach outlined above.

Awarding requirements – extended project qualification

1. 17. The aim of awarding for the extended project qualification in the November and January series is to seek alignment with summer 2023.

Approach to awarding

1. 18. An awarding organisation must ensure that persons involved in the setting of specified levels of attainment for its extended project qualification in the November and January series (“awarders”) are adequately briefed in line with the requirements set out below.

2. 19. Awarders must seek alignment, as far as possible, with summer 2023. To facilitate this, awarders must review archive work from summer 2023 at each key grade and seek to maintain the performance standard demonstrated by Learners taking the relevant qualification in summer 2023. The starting point for awarders is to review scripts that align with the summer 2023 grade boundaries at each key grade, unless there is compelling evidence to suggest otherwise.

3. 20. An awarding organisation must record a rationale for its decisions, regardless of the position of the final recommended boundaries. This should include evidence to support its qualitative judgements in terms of the scripts that have been reviewed.

4. 21. An awarding organisation must raise any concerns with Ofqual and other awarding organisations at the twice weekly teleconferences that are scheduled throughout the awarding period.

Inter-awarding organisation alignment

1. 22. Given the reliance on judgement rather than statistical methods, the risks to inter-awarding organisation alignment of standards are higher in the November and January series than would usually be the case. To mitigate these risks, awarding organisations must share the rationale for their awarding decisions with one another following each award where there are concerns regarding inter-awarding organisation alignment. These concerns may be raised either by an awarding organisation during the twice weekly teleconferences, or by Ofqual – each awarding organisation must have regard to the evidence provided by other awarding organisations ahead of finalising their own awards.

Review of outcomes

1. 23. Ofqual will consider the outcomes of each award based on the data provided as part of these procedures, and in the context of the approach outlined above.

Reporting

Reporting requirements

Each awarding organisation must provide the information specified below to Ofqual. Submission should be no later than five working days after completion of the award, but outcomes can be submitted sooner where available. 

If there is to be a delay in submission –for example, because an awarding organisation needs to carry out further analyses post-award in order to establish the security of the outcomes – an awarding organisation must notify Ofqual via the data exchange mailbox dataexchange@ofqual.gov.uk as soon as possible and in any event before the expected submission date.

GCSE reporting

For each qualification, each awarding organisation must report the all Learner outcomes, using Template November_G1 and according to Ofqual’s reporting requirements. The all Learner outcomes must include partial absentees.

For each qualification and optional entry code, each awarding organisation must report the recommended qualification level grade boundaries at grades 9, 7, 4 and 1, and the maximum mark for that specification, using Template November_G2 and according to Ofqual’s reporting requirements.

For each qualification, each awarding organisation must report all of its November 2023 GCSE results compared with GCSE results for the same Learners in summer 2023, using Template November_G4 and according to Ofqual’s reporting requirements. Comparisons must be undertaken for 17-year-old Learners and all Learners. The grade comparisons with summer 2023 must exclude partial absentees.

Extended project qualification reporting

For each qualification, each awarding organisation must report all Learner outcomes, using Template Autumn_E1 and according to Ofqual’s reporting requirements. 

For each qualification, each awarding organisation must report the recommended qualification level grade boundaries at grades A* and E, and the maximum mark for that qualification, using Template_E2 and according to Ofqual’s reporting requirements.

Sending data

Each awarding organisation must confirm its data exchange contacts with Ofqual before the process begins. All data are to be uploaded to the secure Teams group.

All returns are subject to the final ratification of the awards by the awarding organisation.

On receipt of the information required by this document, Ofqual:

1. Will review the data in the context of the approach for awarding
2. May contact awarding organisations to ask for additional information or clarification, and will aim to do this within 24 hours of receipt
3. Will hold twice weekly teleconferences throughout the awarding period (Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12noon) with awarding organisation technical colleagues, as necessary, to review data and explore any implications
4. Will discuss outcomes with awarding organisations at the Maintenance of Standards meetings on 3 January 2024 (GCSE English language and maths)

Principles for using the secure Teams group

1. A secure Teams group is to be used for sensitive data relating to the data exchange.
2. Email should be used as usual where no sensitive data is included or attached. All email correspondence should be sent to dataexchange@ofqual.gov.uk.
3. Where appropriate, notification alerts should be set up by individual users to notify them when folders or documents are added or changed.
4. In terms of version control, all templates must be uploaded using the date as a prefix, for example, 01072024-WJEC-Template 1. Therefore, whenever a revised data template is uploaded, please create this as a new document using the date as a prefix and the time as a suffix where necessary, for example 01072024-WJEC-Template 1-8.30.
5. Old versions of templates must not be deleted from the Teams group.
6. Awarding organisation users must not create extra folders within the data exchange library of the Teams group without consulting Ofqual first.

1. An extended project qualification is a level 3 project qualification. ↩

2. Ofqual Handbook ↩

3. GCSE 9 to 1 qualification level conditions ↩

4. Project qualification level conditions and requirements ↩