New GCSEs will leave top students with 'sense of underachievement', school leaders warn

The new GCSEs will leave Britain's brightest youngsters with a "sense of underachievement", school leaders have warned. 

Experts warned that many pupils are likely to feel "disappointment", with just a few hundred students expected to achieve the very highest grades across the board when results are released on Thursday. 

The change could even lead students to abandon subjects they achieve a grade 8 in, even though it is the second-highest mark available and technically equivalent to an A*. 

The changed exams rate students on a scale of 1 to 9, replacing the old lettered system, in which the top grade was an A*. 

Analysis has found that old-style GCSEs benefited girls, with female students outperforming their male classmates in 46 of 49 subjects at or above the pass grade of C or 4, with an average gap of 9.5 percentage points. 

A report by Professor Alan Smithers of the University of Buckingham suggested that the move away from coursework and towards exams in the new system will benefit male students. 

"Girls are said to apply themselves more conscientiously and consistently throughout the courses and to be motivated by chalking up credit as they go along. 

"Boys seem to cope better with one-off big-bang examinations at the end of courses," he said. 

Professor Smithers also warned that some high-achieving students were likely to be "disappointed" because the new system made it harder to achieve the very top grade. 

"Any disappointment on these grounds is needless because although it does not sound like it a grade 8 is, in fact, the equivalent of an A*," the report added. 

The analysis also shows that more pupils are actually achieving top grades in the new exams than under the old system. 

In the three pilot exams in English Language, English Literature and Maths, which were the first using the new system to be launched last year, around two-thirds more students achieved a grade 8 or 9 than in the 2016 results, which still used the old system. 

Earlier this year analysis by exam board Cambridge Assessment found that only between 200 and 900 students are expected to achieve a clean sweep of "9" grades, a small fraction of the 8,500 who achieved an A* in eight or more subjects in 2015. 

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: "We know that students who could have expected to receive an A* in 'legacy' GCSEs will be disappointed if they receive an 8 rather than the top grade of 9.

"This sense of underachievement could lead to them deciding that they aren't good enough in those subjects to continue them to A level."

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "We are concerned that the new grading system for GCSEs ratchets up the pressure on young people another notch."

A grade 7 is broadly equivalent to an A, while a 4 is equivalent to a C. 

An Ofqual spokesman said that grade 9s were intended to reward "exceptional performance".

 Department for Education spokeswoman said: "Our new gold-standard GCSEs don’t just raise academic standards but the new grade 9 provides stretch at the top end of the ability range to recognise and reward truly exceptional performance.”