Music: GCSE

(asked on 4th June 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students (a) in total and (b) eligible for free school meals took GCSE Music in each year since 2010.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 7th June 2018

The number of pupils[1], in state-funded schools, eligible for Free School Meals, at the end of Key Stage 4, who entered into GCSE (or equivalent) music[2], between 2012/13 – 2016/17[3] are provided in the table below:

Pupils entering GCSE Music

Academic year

Free School Meal eligible pupils[4]

All other pupils[5]

Total pupils

Percentage of all pupils entering music

2012/13[6]

5,804

30,614

36,418

6.4

2013/14[7]

6,575

30,673

37,248

6.7

2014/15[8]

7,320

31,660

38,980

7.0

2015/16

7,185

30,200

37,385

6.9

2016/17

6,788

27,962

34,750

6.6

[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] Free School Meal (FSM) status is taken from the pupils census record for that academic year and indicates that they were eligible for FSM in at least one of the previous 6 academic years.

[5] Includes pupils whose FSM status was unknown.

[6] Data for periods prior to 2012/13 are not available.

[7] 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.

[8] 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.

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