Chief Regulator at Ofqual writes to governors and trustees

The letter provides information to support secondary governors and trustees when they are considering results at their school, college or trust alongside the national context.

National outcomes in 2025 were stable for AS and A levels, GCSEs and Vocational and Technical Qualifications (VTQs). The small year-on year variations in results this year are in line with those seen each year and reflect things such as small differences in the cohort of students and changes in course choices over time.

This year Ofqual have published high-level statistics for GCSEs, AS and A levels, and vocational and technical performance table qualifications (PTQs): Qualification results in England: summer 2025. They have also updated their Ofqual analytics to allow schools to explore results for A level and GCSE by county, subject combinations and centre type and included information on outcomes for T Level Technical Qualifications (TQ) and performance table qualifications.

Ofqual have provided an interactive visualisation showing the level of variation in schools’ and colleges’ GCSE results compared with 2024. In any year, individual schools and colleges may see variation in the proportion of students achieving each grade compared with previous years. This tool could support schools consideration of variation in their school or college or trust results this year in the context of national variability.

Grading standards in 2026 will be maintained from summer 2025. This means they will regulate so that it is no easier or harder to get any grade next year than in previous years, or with any exam board.

Ofqual note that governors and trustees play an important role in supporting their senior leadership teams towards the safe delivery of exams and assessments and boards may wish to consider the approach of their school, college or trust to the following:

• With the growth of artificial intelligence, schools and colleges have an increasing responsibility to ensure the authenticity of student work. JCQ’s guidance on AIprovides information for teachers and assessors to manage the use of AI in assessments.
• Ofqual’s resilience guidanceadvises schools and colleges to retain evidence of student performance (most often, mock exam papers). It is important that appropriate evidence is available so that qualifications could be awarded even in the most unlikely of circumstances.
• Cyber security threats continue to present significant issues for schools and colleges. Boards can help by using the National Cyber Security Centre’s resource for governors, which gives a framework for discussing cyber security with school leaders.

See the full letter here.