Getting GCSE data for external students
Like many 11-18 schools, we have an intake at age 16 of students who want a change or whose school doesn't have a Sixth Form. We find out their GCSE grades when they enrol in September, but a keen Head of Maths (or other subject, but Maths is best) will want to know their actual score out of 240 and check their suitability for Maths or Further Maths (or Core Maths, niche fans).
Fortunately Edexcel are amazing for 2 reasons: the vast majority of students do Edexcel GCSE Maths, and Edexcel allow you to access their scores from Results Day onwards, well in advance of enrolment.
Massive caveat: you need to inform the students that you are doing this and explaining the purpose behind using the data, supposedly for "GDPR" reasons. There is a sample notification at the bottom of this post that you can send to them.
It is a fiddly process, using several websites, so I have written this walkthrough that should give you all the steps you need. But if you have any problems, just get in touch via @robotmaths on Twitter or email robotmaths@outlook.com, and I'll be happy to help.
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Step 1: get their info
Hopefully your data manager has already provided you with the names of those planning to enrol (if you are super-organised like me, you have collected their names and schools at a Taster Day earlier in the year). You will also need their school name and date of birth. The DOB should be on your school management system, or again hassle the data manager. If they ask why, tell them. If they refuse to give the info, start looking for another school. You are a professional responsible for the largest and most important A Level there is, they should not be putting barriers in your way.
So now you have a list of names, schools and birth dates.
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Step 2: get the school centre numbers
Every school has a 5 digit number, but there is not a Government database of these, in fact they aren't even on https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk. And if you try to ask schools, good luck either getting through to the Head of Maths, or some of them will refuse to tell you.
There are two ways though of getting them. The first is in Edexcel Online. When logged in, look for the menu item Centre Search. You can then choose a word in the school name and it will show you all matching ones.
Thanks to Graham Cumming, erstwhile Emporium genius, there is also a quick way to download all the centre numbers for the UK. You need to go into ResultsPlus and click on the "Results for a Cohort" tab. This enables you to see how you compare to your region or to national. Download the list of national names. It's more to search through but every school is there somewhere.
To make your life easy, I have put the June 2022 list in a Dropbox here. Though new schools will no doubt be added, this should be adequate for your needs. If there are several schools with the same name, and the 5 digit numbers don't helpfully start with your county code (eg "64" for Surrey), you will just have to try them one after the other and hope one works.
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Step 3: enable the students
Now we need to link the students with their new centre. Go into ResultsPlus and in the first menu is the heading "Retrieve Incoming Learner Results". Clicking on this gives you a choice of Individual or Multiple learners.
Edexcel provide a CSV so you can do this for a multiple list, but unfortunately you then need their UCIs (long versions of candidate numbers) which you almost certainly will never get hold of. So instead you should do them individually. You are given a set of boxes, all of which need to be completed.
Some will come up as "not found", usually because their name you have been given is not exactly what Edexcel think their name is. Be creative adding hyphens in double-barrelled names, or moving the middle name into or out of the surname if you are given 3 names. If all that fails, you will just have to wait until they arrive and ask them, or email them before enrolment if you can be bothered.
When ResultsPlus does find them, you then have to link them with your own centre number, and say that you have informed the students you are doing so.
At this stage you don't actually check their results, you are just linking them.
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Step 4: actually get their results
Now they have been linked with your school, you can see their paper-by-paper scores (and even question level, if they are doing resits and you want to analyse their performance). You can access these in the normal way through ResultsPlus.
You can't download them as a group like your own students, you have to look at them individually, so it's going to take some time.
In the initial menu, choose "ResultsPlus Analysis" and then (top tip) always click on "Student results". Type their name (in this section it can just be their first name or last name, you DON'T need to put in the date of birth or anything). And when looking up the back button, just click on "Analysis options" at the top then "Student results" again. It's quicker than pressing the Back button because ResultsPlus tries to load your previous search all over again.
Watch out for students who have done IGCSE (4MA1) because their score will be out of 200 and the grade boundaries will be different.
If students have done GCSE Statistics you will be able to see those grades as well!
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So there you have it. You now know all about your new arrivals. As I said, if you have any problems, just get in touch via @robotmaths on Twitter or email robotmaths@outlook.com, and I'll be happy to help.
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Sample notification:
In line with GDPR requirements, you are reminded to please inform your enrolled learners of the purpose for which Pearson is disclosing learner results data to you. We suggest you notify learners as follows:
“In order to support you with your course, we would like to access via Pearson’s ResultsPlus service a breakdown of your results from the Pearson Edexcel papers you have sat.
“This information, consisting of details of your examination marks, grades and the breakdown of your performance achieved in Pearson Edexcel examinations at your last centre, will enable your school or college tutor to more specifically target your learning needs.
“We will not use the information for any other purpose, nor disclose it to any other party.”
