Music: GCSE

(asked on 16th April 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children have taken music subjects at GCSE level for each year since the introduction of the English Baccalaureate.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Agnew of Oulton
This question was answered on 30th April 2018

The figures presented in the table below show the total number of pupils, at the end of key stage 4,[1] who entered GCSE (or equivalent) music since the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (2009/10).[2]

Academic year

Pupils at the end of key stage 4

Pupils entering GCSE music[3]

Percentage of pupils entering GCSE music3

2009/10

639,263

45,433

7

2010/11

627,093

43,157

7

2011/12

620,617

40,761

7

2012/13

632,397

41,256

7

2013/14[4]

618,437

42,446

7

2014/15

611,024

43,698

7

2015/16

600,425

41,650

7

2016/17

587,640

38,901[5]

7

[1] Pupils are identified as being at the end of key stage 4 if they were on roll at the school and in year 11 at the time of the January school census for that year. Age is calculated as at 31 August for that year, and the majority of pupils at the end of key stage 4 were age 15 at the start of the academic year. Some pupils may complete this key stage in an earlier or later year group.

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/revised-gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-2016-to-2017 (subject time series table).

[3] Includes pupils who were absent, whose results are pending, and results which are ungraded or unclassified.

[4] In 2013/14, two major reforms were implemented which affect the calculation of key stage 4 performance measures data. These are:

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.

2) An early entry policy to only count a pupil’s first attempt at a qualification, in subjects counted in the English Baccalaureate.

[5] 2017 figures are based on provisional data. Figures for all other years are final.

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