Progress 8 & Attainment 8 – The Basics

The Progress 8 (P8) measure is designed to measure the progress your students make from the end of primary school to the end of Y11.  It is a value added measure that will compare the results of your students to the actual achievements of similar students nationally (with the same prior attainment).

The P8 measure is broader and more structured than previous VA measures. It  places emphasis on English and maths together with the other EBacc subjects. However, it does take account of other subjects not in the academic core that are approved Level 1, Level 2 qualifications.

The P8 measure will drive changes to schools’ curriculum structures at KS4 in that 8 qualifications will be measured – maths (double weighted), and English (double weighted), 3 further qualifications that count in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) element, and three further qualifications that can be GCSE qualifications (including EBacc subjects) or any other non-GCSE qualifications on the DfE approved list.

Every increase in every grade in these 8 qualifications will attract additional points in the performance tables.

The Progress 8 score will be calculated for each student by comparing their attainment – their Attainment 8 score – with the average Attainment 8 score of all students nationally who had a similar starting point at the start of KS3 (also known as ‘prior attainment’).  The school’s overall Progress 8 score will be the average of each student’s Progress 8 score.

Further detailed information on Progress 8 can be found at: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/progress-8-school-performance-measure