1. Northern Ireland Provisional GCE Results 2013 Thursday 15 August 2013

2. Introduction and welcome This morning’s briefing panel: Martin Quinn, Director of Corporate Services Anne Marie Duffy, Director of Qualifications Pamela Larmour, Research and Statistics

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

4. Headlines High numbers of NI students achieving A level grades – particularly strong performance in Mathematics, Chemistry and modern languages ; Traditional subjects the most popular choices; Increasing entries in STEM subjects.

5. Format of Briefing GCE A Level Provisional Results 2013  Performance  Entries  Gender Comparisons  Subject Specific information AS Results Applied Results Questions and Answers

6. NI GCE A Level Results

7. NI GCE Performance Over Time 2009 - 2013 A (%)A – C (%)A – E (%) 200934.584.698.4 A*- A (%)A* - CA* – E (%) 201035.984.598.1 201134.584.298.1 201231.983.598.1 201330.783.598.2

8. Subjects with Best Performance NI 2013 SubjectA* - A %Entry Further Mathematics 63.0173 German 51.599 Irish 48.9309 Mathematics 46.23176 Other Modern Languages 42.1121 French 40.2550 Chemistry 39.91920 Classical Subjects 39.5119 Spanish 39.0513 Art and Design Subjects 34.91042

9. NI GCE Entries 2009 – 2013

10. NI School Population Profile

11. NI STEM Entries % of total A level entry Total subject entry 2013 Total subject entry 2012 % change in entry Biology 10.23359 3,470 -3.2 Maths 9.73176 3,120 +1.8 Chemistry 5.81920 1,849 +3.8 Physics 4.81577 1,536 +2.7 ICT 4.61524 1498 +1.7 Technology 3.0998 994 +0.4 Further Maths 0.5173 155 +11.6

12. NI Modern Languages Entries % of total A level entry Total subject entry 2013 Total subject entry 2012 % change in entry French 1.7550 601 -8.5 Spanish 1.6513 490 +4.7 Irish 0.9309 304 +1.6 German 0.399 125 -20.8

13. Subjects Going up in NI Subject (with over 400 entries) Total subject entries 2013 Total subject entries 2012 Increase % change of entries Business Studies14391265+174+13.8 Geography20011868+133+7.1 Spanish513490+23+4.7 Religious Studies25032402+101+4.2 Chemistry19201849+71+3.8 Political Studies10911061+30+2.8

14. Subjects Going down in NI Subject (with over 400 entries) Total subject entries 2013 Total subject entries 2012 Decrease % change of entries Art and Design10421232-190-15.4 Drama540617-77-12.5 Physical Education631697-66-9.5 French550601-51-8.5 Media Studies10731141-68-6.0 Psychology594628-34-5.4

15. Gender Comparisons 2013 (2012 figures in brackets) 7.1 % of the grades achieved by Males are A* compared to 7.2% of the grades achieved by Females. MaleFemale %A*7.1 (7.1)7.2 (8.1) %A* - A28.3 (29.1)32.8 (34.2) %A* - E 97.8 (97.6) 98.5 (98.5)

16. Most Popular A-Level Subjects NI Subject % of total A level entry Total subject entry 1. Biology10.23359 2. Mathematics9.73176 3. Religious Studies7.62503 4. History7.22363 5. English7.02287 6. Geography6.12001 7. Chemistry5.81920 8. Physics4.81577 9. ICT4.61524 10. Business Studies4.41439

17. Most Popular A Level Subjects by Gender NI % of total A level Male entry % of total A level Female entry Mathematics (12.5%)Biology (11.1%) Biology (9.3%)Religious Studies (10.0%) History (8.0%)English (9.3%) Physics (7.9%)Mathematics (7.3%) Geography (6.3%)History (6.5%)

18. NI AS Entries 2009 – 2013

19. NI AS Levels 2012 – 2013 Results at A-C down by 0.6 percentage points Results at grade A down by 1.4 percentage points Entries A (%) A – C (%) A – E (%) 2011 42,666 31.676.594.3 2012 44,486 29.576.194.6 201343,472 28.175.594.4

20. NI Applied GCE A level EntriesA* - AA* - E 20134,57715.898.1 20124,43315.597.2 Applied GCE A Level Single Award Applied GCE A Level Double Award EntriesA*A - AAA*A - EE 20138598.898.8 20121,0128.598.6

21. 2013 Northern Ireland GCE Provisional Results Summary High numbers of NI students achieving A level grades – particularly strong performance in Mathematics, Chemistry and modern languages ; Traditional subjects the most popular choices; Increasing entries in STEM subjects.

22. Questions and Answers