Overview

• Officials have been instructed to draw up reform plans to avoid teenagers repeatedly resitting core exams, with final decisions to follow the review’s recommendations.
• This year’s results show retake entries up 12% year on year, with only 18% of maths and 23% of English resits reaching grade 4, amounting to more than 275,000 failed attempts.
• Proposals under consideration include limiting pupils to a single resit, introducing a pass‑fail competency assessment modelled on driving or music tests, or creating a teenager‑focused functional skills qualification.
• The review was commissioned by education secretary Bridget Phillipson and led by Professor Becky Francis, whose interim report kept a minimum grade 4 as the ambition for as many learners as possible.
• Exam boards and head teachers describe the current regime as demoralising and resource‑intensive, and Ofqual data show premature re-entry rarely succeeds, with around 50 grade 4s from 3,400 November maths resits by grade‑2 students.