Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students have taken GCSE Music by ethnic group in each year since 2010.

The number of entries[1], by pupils in state-funded schools, at the end of key stage 4, into GCSE (or equivalent) music[2], between 2012/13 – 2016/17 are provided in the table below:[3]

[1] Total number of entries include pupils who were absent, whose results are pending and results which are ungraded or unclassified.

[2] Discounting has been applied where pupils have taken the same subject more than once and only one entry is counted in these circumstances. Only the first entry is counted, in all subjects, in line with the early entry guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-stage-4-qualifications-discount-codes-and-point-scores).

[3] All figures are based on final data.

[4] In 2013/14, two major reforms were implemented which affect the calculation of key stage 4 performance measures data: 1) Professor Alison Wolf’s Review of Vocational Education recommendations which: restrict the qualifications counted; prevent any qualification from counting as larger than one GCSE; and cap the number of non-GCSEs included in performance measures at two per pupil, and 2) an early entry policy to only count a pupil’s first attempt at a qualification, in subjects counted in the English Baccalaureate.

[5] From 2014/15, early entry policy, under which only a pupil’s first attempt at a qualification is counted in performance measures, is extended to all subjects.