Northern Ireland Provisional GCE Results 2012 Record numbers of Northern Ireland students achieving A level grades Thursday 16 August 2012

Introduction and welcome This morning’s briefing panel:  Martin Quinn, Director of Corporate Services  Anne Marie Duffy, Director of Qualifications  Michael Crossan, Examinations Operations Business Manager

Context Briefing on behalf of Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). Provisional NI GCE results from all 5 JCQ awarding organisations:  AQA  CCEA  Edexcel  OCR  WJEC

Headlines Record number of NI Students achieving A Level Grades NI GCE performance in line with expectations Growing popularity of STEM subjects

Format of Briefing GCE A Level Provisional Results 2012  Performance  Entries  Gender Comparisons  Subject Specific information AS Results Applied Results Questions and answers

NI GCE A Level Results ENTRIES32,90832,582 A* (%) A*- A (%) A* - C (%) A* - E (%)98.1

NI GCE Performance Over Time A (%)A - C%A – E (%) A*- A (%)A* - CA* – E (%)

Subjects with Best Performance Northern Ireland 2012 SubjectA* - A %Entry Further Mathematics Irish Mathematics47.43,120 German French Chemistry42.01,849 Spanish Art & Design Subjects37.91,232 Biology36.33,470 Physics33.31,536

Northern Ireland GCE Entries 2008 – 2012 Breakdown

Falling Pupil Numbers – Rising Staying-On Rates

NI STEM Entries % of entry % change in entry Biology10.53,4703, Chemistry5.61,8491, Maths9.53,1203, Physics4.71,5361, Technology

NI Modern Languages Entries % of total entry % change in entry French Spanish Irish German

Going up Subject (with over 400 entries)% of entries Total No. of entries Psychology Drama16617 Design and Technology Media Studies8.51,141 Physics6.91,536 History6.22,451

Going down Subject (with over 400 entries)% Reduction Physical Education English Business Studies Political Studies ICT Geography0.5-10

Gender Comparisons NI 2012 MaleFemale %A*7.1 (7.9)8.1 (9.1) %A* - A29.1 (31.5)34.2 (36.9) %A* - E97.6 (97.7)98.5 (98.4) (2011 figures in brackets)  7.1% of the grades achieved by Males are A* compared to 8.1% of the grades achieved by Females.  Females continue to out-perform Males consistently at all grades.

Most Popular A-Level Subjects Northern Ireland Subject2012 %Entries Biology10.53,470 Mathematics9.53,120 History7.42,451 Religious Studies7.32,402 English7.22,355

Most Popular Subjects by Gender Northern Ireland Male % Female % Mathematics (11.9)Biology (11.5) Biology (9.4)Religious Studies (9.3) History (8.7)English (9.3) Physics (7.2)Mathematics (7.5) ICT (5.9)History (6.4)

Northern Ireland GCE AS entries 2008 – 2012 Breakdown

NI AS Levels EntriesAA-CA – E , , There has been an increase of 1820 entries at AS Performance at A has changed by 2.1%

NI Applied GCE A level Applied Single Award Applied Double Award EntriesA*A - AAA*A - EE 20121, , EntriesA* - AA* - E 20124, ,

2012 Northern Ireland GCE Provisional Results Summary Record number of NI Students achieving A Level Grades NI GCE performance in line with expectations Growing popularity of STEM subjects

Questions and Answers