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Introduction
Why we need discounting
Changes from 2014
Can a pupil take qualifications which discount?
How are Qualifications Discounted?
Discount Codes
Principles of Discounting
Exception Discounting
Use of Mathematics and Free Standing Maths
Qualifications
Maths Linked Pair GCSEs and GCSE Mathematics
English GCSE and English Language and English
Literature GCSEs
GCSE Science Discounting
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1. Discounting is an important part of the
Department for Education’s
Secondary School Performance Tables, defining when the performance points and threshold contribution of a qualification are discounted against those of another qualification.
2. The discounting system affects the calculation of performance measures for a school in the performance tables. It does not alter the awards an individual pupil has achieved.
Why we need discounting
3. Discounting is primarily about ensuring that, where a pupil has taken more than one qualification in the same subject area, the performance tables only give credit once for teaching a single course of study.
4. Discounting may be required in a number of situations, for example: i. a pupil resits a qualification before the end of Key Stage 4, possibly with a different awarding organisation. Discounting then ensures that only the best result is counted in the
Secondary School Performance Tables. ii. the school provides a single course of study but then enters the pupil for two or more very similar qualifications. Discounting ensures that the achievement from this course is counted only once.
5. Discounting is governed by the allocation of discount codes to qualifications with similar subject content. Codes may be updated at any time during the year to improve the quality of discounting. This can affect the current cycle without prior notice.
Changes from 2014
6. In line with Professor Alison Wolf’s recommendations, the Department has published lists of which qualifications for 14-16 year olds will count in the Secondary School Performance Tables from 2014 and
2015. The lists can be found at: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/qualification s/a00202523/reform-of-14-to-16-performance-tables. From 2014 each qualification will count as “one” and only two non-GCSEs will be included in performance measures. (Qualifications on the lists which are smaller in size than 1 GCSE will continue to count as less than 1
GCSE in the performance tables.)
7. Historically, discounting has only been applied in the performance tables within qualification types or “families”. For example, GCSEs and other qualification types have traditionally not discounted each other. This is because in the past there has been little overlap in the
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subject content of qualifications from different families. However, over time discount families have become increasingly less meaningful as differences between the subject content of some GCSEs and other qualifications have diminished. The Department has, therefore, reviewed the discounting arrangements for the qualifications that will count from 2014.
8. With the help of subject experts, the Department has compared the specifications of qualifications in the same or similar subject areas across discounting families. Where an overlap in subject content was found, the same discount code has been applied to these qualifications meaning that only one will count in the performance tables from 2014. The Department has also looked at a small number of qualifications in the same family where there is an overlap in subject content. Here too the same discount code has been applied to these qualifications. The result is that some qualifications that have previously not discounted one another, will discount from 2014.
9. The December 2012 release of unamended data in RAISEonline includes a report showing the percentage achieving 5 or more GCSEs at A*-C including English and maths based on changes to the
Performance Tables from 2014. Here each qualification is counted as
“one”, only two non-GCSEs are included and revised discount codes apply. This is based on s chools’ current qualification offer and gives an early indication of the impact of the changes on results.
Can a pupil take qualifications which discount?
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Discounting only applies to schools’ results in the performance tables, not to the qualifications achieved by pupils. There are a number of educational reasons why a pupil might undertake qualifications which discount each other. A common one would be in order to recognise their progression through a course of study, for example taking a level
1 qualification before progressing to a level 2 qualification.
11. Two qualifications will discount if they have the same discount code.
12. On occasion additional discounting is required to deal with more complex combinations of subjects. This is known as Exception
Discounting.
Discount Codes
13. A qualification is assigned a discount code on the basis of the subject area it covers. The purpose of a discount code is to gather qualifications with similar content together and compare them to the other qualifications with that code.
14. Only qualifications that contribute to the performance tables are
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allocated discount codes. Qualifications at level 4 and above and below level 1 and those not included in the list of qualifications that will count in the 2014 Performance Tables do not have discount codes as they fall outside the scope of the performance tables.
15. The 2014 Discounting Codes Excel workbook shows all the qualifications that will count in the 2014 Performance Tables with their new discount codes. Using this schools can see where two qualifications will discount and the discount codes which will be in use from 2014, with their descriptions.
Principles of Discounting
16. Once two or more qualifications are known to have the same discount code the following principles are applied to determine which one is discounted: i. where a higher level qualification is taken in the same subject as a lower level qualification, the lower level qualification is not counted. For example a GCE AS will discount a GCSE. ii. where a pupil has more than one qualification in the same subject at the same level, credit will be given to the one with the highest result (determined by its point score).
17. There are occasional situations where assigning discount codes alone are not sufficient to achieve accurate discounting. In these circumstances rules about specific qualifications are applied.
18. Exception discounting applies in the following circumstances i. AS Level Use of Mathematics and level 3 Free Standing
Mathematics Qualifications ii. Mathematics GCSE and Mathematics GCSE Linked Pair iii. English GCSE and English Language and English Literature
GCSEs iv. GCSE Science Discounting
19. The information below provides a basic overview of the exception discounting process. If you require more detailed information for a specific situation then please contact attainment.statistics@education.gsi.gov.uk
Use of Mathematics and Free Standing Maths Qualifications
20. The AS Level Use of Mathematics is made up of a combination of core units that are not qualifications in their own right and Level 3
Free Standing Maths qualifications (FSMQs). The FSMQs will only count in the Secondary School Performance Tables if the AS Level
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Use of Maths qualification result is unclassified.
21. Please note that the level 1/level 2 Free Standing Maths
Qualifications that contribute to the Level 1/Level 2 Use of
Mathematics certificate are not on the list of qualifications that will be counted in the Secondary School Performance Tables from 2014. If the Level 1/Level 2 Use of Mathematics result is unclassified, these
FSMQs will not count in their own right.
Mathematics GCSE and Mathematics GCSE Linked Pair
22. The two linked mathematics GCSEs -
“Applications of Mathematics” and “Methods in Mathematics” - have distinct discount codes that are also different to the one used for GCSE Mathematics. If a pupil takes one or both of the linked pair qualifications (group one) alongside
GCSE Mathematics (group two) then exception discounting is applied to ensure that only one of these groups of qualifications is counted in the Secondary School Performance Tables.
23. In this instance, exception discounting is applied by comparing one group of qualifications against another group. To determine which
‘group’ is discounted the following process is undertaken: i. If one group has passes at a higher level than the other group, or the other group contains only fails, discount all qualifications in the group with the lower level/all fails ii. If both groups are at the same level and both contain passes, discount the group with the smaller number of passes iii. If both groups are at the same level with passes of the same volume, discount the group with the lower total points iv. If both groups are at the same level, with the same volume of passes and the same points, discount GCSE Mathematics.
English GCSE and English Language and English Literature GCSEs
24. The new specifications for English expect pupils to either take GCSE
English which covers both language and literature, or take English
Language GCSE with English Literature GCSE. If a pupil takes all three qualifications, or English GCSE with either English Language or
English Literature GCSE, then exception discounting is applied so that at most two qualifications are counted in the Secondary School
Performance Tables.
25. The process for applying exception discounting is the same as set out for mathematics at paragraphs 22 and 23. English GCSE belongs to group one and English Language and English Literature GCSEs belong to group two. If both groups are at the same level, same volume and same points, then preference is given to GCSE English.
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GCSE Science Discounting
26. Science exception discounting is a complex area and requires further refining for 2014. Science exception discounting has therefore not been applied to the 2012 data shown on RAISEonline, but the impact of this is minimal for the majority of schools.
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