12 Steps to KS4 Heaven: Smart ways to maximise attainment and progress at KS4 in 2027 and beyond

Written by Alps Senior Educational Consultant, John Philip

Foreword

If your school has a Sixth Form, you may well be aware of my ’99 Ways to Improve your Sixth Form.’ I have written this companion piece on KS4 over the summer of 2026, partly in response to requests from schools I’ve had the privilege to work with at KS4 – whether in my role as Senior Educational Consultant for Alps, as an independent self-employed adviser, or (until the summer of 2024), as a self-employed associate with the PiXL Network.

My other motivation to write this now is the return of Progress 8 in 2027 after two ‘fallow’ years.

In 2024-25 and 2025-26, your Year 11 cohorts did not take KS2 SATs because they were in Year 6 during the Covid pandemic. Because of this, schools’ KS4 data in the Performance Tables since 2024 has been dominated by raw attainment indicators such as Attainment 8 (A8) scores and the percentages achieving the Basics at 4+ and 5+.

With the return of Progress 8 (P8) for the Year 11 cohort in 2026-27, it seemed an opportune moment to put this together to reflect on how schools might best plan to maximise progress as well as attainment in 2026-27 (and beyond).

Finally, please remember that you can’t improve student attainment unless you are able to accelerate your students’ progress from KS2.

However, you can’t improve their progress from KS2 unless you are able to raise their attainment.

By focusing on their current attainment and where the gaps exist in their skills and knowledge, their attainment and progress can both be improved during Year 11.

Step 1: Honestly evaluate your 2026 results, what did you do well and what might you need to improve?

a) Whilst this might seem obvious, it is very important to start with an honest evaluation of where your school is now in September 2026.

In terms of raw attainment what are your provisional 2026 figures for: 

• A8 Overall and in each bucket? 
• Basics at 4+  (Overall and in each of maths and best English?)
• Basics at 5+ (Overall and in each of maths and best English?)

How do those figures compare with your validated figures for 2025 and 2024?

Does your analysis of attainment in 2025 and 2026 suggest that some student groups underperform against their peers?

• Boys? 
• Girls? 
• Pupil Premium (PP) students? 
• Students on Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)? 
• SEN Support students? 
• Any significant ethnic group, for example White British?

Did you match national performance at 9-7 in most or all subjects?

Did you match national performance at 9-5 in most or all subjects?

Did you match national performance at 9-4 in most or all subjects?

Which subjects predicted final grades most or least accurately in 2026?

Which strategic improvement priorities emerge from your analysis?

b) Reflect back to your Progress 8 scores in 2023 and 2024. Would you be content were you to achieve a similar score in 2027?

If not, which curriculum areas led to disappointment in either 2023 and/or 2024?

• Best English?
• Maths?
• The EBacc bucket?
• Science?
• Humanities?
• Languages?
• The Open bucket?
• How many second-best English grades were strong enough to boost the score for this bucket?
• Which subjects that can only contribute to the Open Bucket added little value?

Does your analysis of progress in 2024 and 2023 suggest that some student groups made less progress than their peers?

• Boys?
• Girls? 
• LPAs (low prior attainers)? MPAs (middle prior attainers)? HPAs (high prior attainers)?
• Pupil Premium students?
• Students on EHCPs?
• SEN support students?
• Any significant ethnic group, for example White British?

Which subjects had inconsistent progress scores/Alps’ grades at teaching set level?

Which strategic improvement priorities emerge from your analysis?

c) Unless you already subscribe to Alps Connect at KS4, consider adopting Connect now. The data shows clearly that schools using Alps Connect at KS4 in 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 outperformed national figures in terms of Progress 8.

Table 1 below compares the % of Alps KS4 clients with positive/negative P8 scores from 2022-2024, with the figures for all schools in England from 2022-2024.

 Schools using Alps at KS4 outperformed the national figures annually each year. Table 2 shows that, in 2024, schools using Alps at KS4 out-performed national figures in each bucket and gained an average P8 score of +0.20. Surely, this can’t be coincidence?

Are you ‘P8 ready’ with your new Year 11?

If your school still doesn’t use Connect at KS4 – there’s no better time to get onboard.

Step 2: Get on top of your priorities based on your new Year 11 – their context and their assessment in Year 10

a) It is equally important to start the year with an honest evaluation of where your school is now in September 2026 with your new Year 11:

• What is their average KS2 score?  
• What percentage of the Year Group are HPA, MPA and LPA? 
• What percentage of the Year Group are PP? 
• What percentage of the Year Group are SEN support and EHCP? 
• What percentage of the Year Group are male / female?

Is your overall contextual data broadly similar to past Year 11 cohorts, for example in 2022-23 and 2023-24?

What strategic data priorities had already emerged before the end of the Summer Term in Year 10 based on ‘mock’ or ‘predicted’ grades? In terms of raw attainment what were your figures for:

• A8 (Overall and in each bucket?)
• Basics at 4+ (Overall and in each of Maths and best English?)
• Basics at 5+ (Overall and in each of Maths and best English?)

In terms of Progress 8, what are your figures for:

• Overall P8? 
• Best English? 
• Maths? 
• The EBacc bucket?
  • Which of the Science, Humanities and Languages Faculties appears to be adding most and least value?
• The Open bucket?
  • How many second-best English grades look strong enough to boost the score for this bucket?
  • Which subjects that can only contribute to the Open Bucket are adding little value?

Are any student groups underperforming in terms of either attainment and/or progress?

How to establish your priorities

Do your priorities based on the Year 10 data for your new Year 11 align with your priorities based on your initial evaluation of your 2026 results:

Also consider your evaluation based on your P8 scores in 2023 and 2024.

b) Were your Year 10 Mock Results for your new Year 11 disappointing? Is this a noticeable trend in your school when students sit mock exams?

If mock results are poor, they often lead on to teachers feeling less confident when predicting final grades/allocating Most Likely grades.

Ask yourself to what extent underachievement in mock exams is caused by each of these factors:

• Student ability? 
• Student attendance? 
• Student engagement? 
• Students being under-prepared for the papers set? 
• Subjects imposing harsh grade boundaries?

If students being underprepared for the papers is on your list is that because:

• The papers contained topic(s) they had not yet been taught? 
• The students had been taught all topics examined but had mastered too few of them and / or had not learned how to apply the knowledge they had learned to the styles of answers required by the questions set?

Working with schools, I find that the second bullet above is a common cause.

There is a lot to teach in any specification but rushing through and ‘ticking off’ content as ‘taught’ can lead to students underperforming if the topics are not revisited and if students are insufficiently aware of the demands of the mark schemes for different styles of questions.

c) Focus on improving attendance / attitude to learning / to boost achievement in 2027.

• Are you starting the new academic year on top of the Year 11 students whose attendance or attitude to learning / engagement or mental health were significant issues during Year 10?

The DfE Research Report (March 2025) into ‘The link between attendance and attainment in an assessment year’ suggests key priorities for schools.

• For state-funded secondary schools in England, the overall absence rate for the 2025/26 academic year was 8.57% (5.24% authorised and 3.33% unauthorised). This translates to an attendance rate of 91.43%.  
• In 2025-26, persistent absence rates nationally in state-funded secondary schools (missing 10% or more of sessions) was 24.21%. At Key Stage 4, students missing 5-10% of sessions see drops equivalent to nearly one full grade per qualification compared to those with near-perfect attendance.  
• I feel certain you will be planning intervention with impact to improve attendance in Year 11, but what strategies are you putting in place? 

These are representative comments from students who were involved:

• 100% stated that their effort/engagement with learning had improved in Year 11 in comparison to Year 10.

Might a similar group help you motivate your harder to reach students and improve engagement, attendance and achievement in 2026-27?

With the return of Progress 8 in 2027 I would suggest selecting students from the following:

• Poor attendance 
• Poor engagement / attitude to learning 
• Low P8 scores based on Y10 Mocks / Y10 Predicted Grades 
• ‘Sidelined’ groups such as PP and SEND

Step 3: Ensure Heads of Faculty/Subject are on top of the typical causes of underachievement in their subject(s)

a) Expect the HOFs/HODs to run department meetings based on:

• 2026 Exam Board QLA – the typical errors that cost students’ marks and grades at your school 
• 2026 Examiner reports – identifying those ‘silver bullets’ that will improve grades based on the typical errors that cost students marks and grades nationally 
• Past papers and mark schemes (especially 2026) 
• Command words

b) If your Year 10 Mocks were marked to identify individual and collective learning gaps (skills / knowledge), what typically cost students marks and grades in each subject?

c) Based on what commonly lost the students marks & grades in your Year 10 Mocks, and what the QLA & Examiner Reports reveal lost the students marks & grades in 2026, ask HoFs/HoDs to identify 5 main priorities to work on through to the Year 11 Mocks, aiming to make sure these students do not make the same errors in them or in 2027.

d) Then, ensure Y11 Mocks are marked to identify individual and collective learning gaps (skills / knowledge) so that these can be addressed, re-assessed, and closed before the summer.

e) Crucially, use the student-level information available from Year 10 Mocks (and other assessments):

• Ensure all Year 11 teachers – especially those who have picked up new sets at the start of Year 11 – have access to the individual student QLA from your Year 10 Mocks and other relevant information from the Year 10 teacher(s). 
• Essentially, all teachers need to know which skills and/or what knowledge is blocking each student from achieving the next higher grade in their subject. 
• Equally each student needs to possess that same information and be given strategies/assignments that are most likely to bridge that ‘next grade up’ gap. 
• After the Year 11 Mocks, all of the above needs refreshing so all concerned are aware of what needs to be done at set and student level to boost attainment and progress in 2027. 

Step 4: Set aspirational and achievable goals at 4+ and 5+

a) At whole-school level, many schools I have worked with use some of the following to set whole-school / faculty targets at 4+ and 5+: 

• What the school / faculty / subject has achieved in the recent past 
• What the national average figures are for accountability measures / subject performance (9-4%; 9-5%; 9-7%) 
• What the school is targeting – their ‘Wildly Important Goals’ 
• Where the new Year 11 cohort appear to be at the end of Year 10 plus what the school has typically gained during Year 11 in recent years 

This, based on entirely fictitious data, exemplifies this approach. The spreadsheet would contain the whole cohort but my line 1 below is the final student who currently is estimated to be on 4+ for both maths and Best English.

If you like this idea, which confirms commitment to named students from the start of Year 11, then replicate at 5+ too.

Think how far more effective it would be if you had identified your 4+ and 5+ target cohorts earlier, at least for the start of Year 10, factoring in attainment and progress in both maths and English during KS3. I will return to this as a theme later, especially in Step 10, ‘Play the Long Game – be on top of attainment and progress in each KS3 year group so Year 11 is not spent trying to fix issues that could have been dealt with in Years 7-9.’

Step 5: Set aspirational and achievable goals for A8 and P8 

a) As you are aware, maths and Best English count double! I know you will all have a sharp focus on Maths and both English qualifications. If the students’ second-best English grade qualifies for your Open Bucket, these two faculties will contribute up to 50% of your P8 score. These subjects are your top priority.

b) In the EBacc bucket, Science can contribute two or three grades for each student so may contribute 20% – 30% of your P8 score if the Science grades are good enough. Science is clearly your next priority.

 c) After that I recommend a sharp focus on the other subjects taken by the largest cohorts of students in your new Year 11.

Beyond the Core, these subjects will have the most significant impact on this cohort’s outcomes and post-16 pathways as well as your A8 and P8 scores.

d) In my experience, some Heads of Faculty/Subject and many classroom teachers find the calculations behind how their grades might influence a school’s A8 or P8 score confusing.

• My advice is to keep things simple. 
• I commend something like a ‘Focus 6’ strategy where each teacher is expected early in September to nominate the 6 students (fewer in very small sets) they believe to be the most likely students to gain a higher grade based on the next set of Mock Exams.
• After the Mocks, repeat the same strategy but allow/expect teachers to identify different students.

As Progress 8 simply depends on any student gaining a higher grade to improve the overall P8 score (if that grade qualifies in one of the buckets), this simple strategy focuses every class teacher on improving attainment and progress in their classroom.

Step 6: Harness the power of the Magnificent Seven – set aspirational and achievable goals at 7+

a) Are results at 7+ in need of boosting in the year ahead?

• Have HPA students gained a poorer Progress 8 score in your school in 2022-2024 than LPA or MPA students? 
• Are the subjects in your school matching national performance at 7+ in their subject / specification? 
• If you have a Sixth Form, would it benefit from more students obtaining high grades at GCSE (6+ and 7+) so that more students meet your recruitment requirements at whole-school and individual subject level?

b) Do remember that the % of students gaining 9-7 varies by subject, see Table 3:

Table 3: National average 9-7% performance by subject in 2025 from JCQ figures:

Step 7: Set aspirational and challenging Personal Targets with your students

 a) As the most recent A8 estimates are the validated 2024 A8 estimates, it would be logical to reference these when establishing target grades for your students.

Table 4: 2024 A8 estimates for each KS2 prior attainment group;

b) Whatever target-setting system you use for students, I have always believed each teacher should be aiming for each student to achieve the best possible grade they can in their subject. Very few teachers believe that a KS2 score based solely on performance in English and maths SATs is the only reliable guide to possible performance at KS4 in every subject.

c) Consider using the A8 estimates as Minimum Expectations. Ask teachers to add challenge, as appropriate, so that each student can have a Personal Challenge Target in each subject that can be higher (but can’t be lower) than their Minimum Expectation.

d) Many of you may want to base your minimum expectations on simple systems designed by Alps or FFT, for example, but do keep the A8 estimates in mind as an obvious check. Aiming for students to achieve higher than the A8 averages for students with their KS2 score is the name of the game.

Step 8: Strengthen your inclusivity

a) How are you getting on with devising the Inclusion Strategy that schools are required to publish by 31st December 2026?

b) How do you ensure each child is equally important, equally included and equally valued?

c) In June 2026 the DfE published non-statutory guidance on developing Inclusion Strategies.

• The guidance focuses on the need to support students, especially those with SEND, to ensure you are genuinely inclusive. 
• The guidance suggests schools should ‘focus on implementing fewer approaches well, to ensure inclusive practice is embedded with impact, consistency and quality in mind. This should include prioritising high quality, adaptive teaching and reflecting on where you can build on existing inclusive practice to strengthen your inclusive offer for all pupils, particularly those with SEND.’

d) The aim of the DfE is that schools will build a universal offer for children and young people by embedding inclusive practices grounded in seven core principles of inclusion.

The seven principles of inclusion are:

• Ambitious leadership and governance that embeds inclusion 
• Evidence-based support prioritising early intervention 
• High quality, adaptive teaching with curriculum designed for all learners 
• Enriching provision beyond the classroom that all children can access 
• A safe and respectful culture fostering belonging, attendance, and participation in learning 
• Strong partnerships with families and wider services 
• Inclusive environments with continuous improvements to accessibility 

e) The Education Endowment Foundation published their ‘Guide to Inclusive Teaching’ in July 2026. This is an excellent summary, highlighting the importance of high-quality adaptive teaching that keeps the challenge high with appropriate scaffolding and support.

f) Do your KS4 exam results in recent years, including 2026, demonstrate that ‘disadvantaged’ learners, for example SEND students and Pupil Premium students are equally likely to gain good GCSE qualifications at your school? 

g) Nationally, as you will be aware, that is far from the case. These are the national figures for SEND students since 2019:

Table 5: National figures from the DfE for A8 and the Basics at 5+ for SEND students from 2019-2025:

h) Table 6 shows the national figures for disadvantaged students since 2019:

Table 6: National figures from the DfE for A8 and the Basics at 5+ for Disadvantaged students & non-disadvantaged students from 2019-2025:

i) Fig 2 from the DfE shows the proportion of SEND students nationally who did well enough at KS4 in 2023 to access (and go on to complete) L3 provision in 2025. The figures for A Level are particularly low.

Fig 2 : Proportion of SEND students nationally who did well enough at KS4 in 2023 to access (and go on to complete) L3 provision in 2025, DfE:

j) Fig 3 from the DfE shows the proportion of disadvantaged students nationally who did well enough at KS4 in 2023 to access (and go on to complete) L3 provision in 2025. The figures for A Level are the lowest.

k) There is much more we can all do to ensure that SEND and disadvantaged students perform well enough at 16 to access Level 3 provision especially for A Levels.

l) In KS4, schools must plan transition support for SEND students at 16 at least one year in advance.

• If you have a Sixth Form, is this a joint venture led in partnership by the member of SLT with responsibility for KS4/The Head of Year 11/The Head of Sixth/The Head of Careers?
• How are you ensuring SEND students gain impartial advice through access to a range of post-16 providers?

 Step 9: Enrich your students’ experience

a) A new Enrichment Framework was published by the DfE in June 2026.

b) Every pupil and student should have access to a range of activities including at a minimum the following 5 categories:

• Civic engagement, for example volunteering, debating, school and college democracy, community engagement
• Arts and culture, for example, taking part in and having live experience of music, art, dance, theatre, other expressive arts, visits to museums and galleries
• Nature, outdoors and adventure, for example time outdoors, climate education and sustainability projects, gardening, residentials and camps
• Sport and physical activities, for example participating in individual and team sports, physical activities like dance, fitness activities or cycling, representing the school or college, attending live events
• Developing wider life and future skills, for example digital literacy, STEM clubs, cooking, managing finances, enterprise and (for colleges only) teaching Relationships and Sex Education

c) Where are your ‘gaps’ and how are you aiming to fill them?

Step 10: Play the Long Game – be on top of attainment and progress in each KS3 year group so Year 11 is not spent trying to fix issues that could have been dealt with in Years 7-9

a) In Step 4 ‘Set aspirational and achievable goals at 4+ and 5+’ I referenced how much more effective it would be if schools identified their 4+ and 5+ target cohorts earlier, at least for the start of Year 10, factoring in attainment and progress in both Maths and English during KS3 instead of at the start of Year 11. Obviously the same would be true for 7+ too.

b) The ‘Mind the Engagement Gap’ report published in 2025 by Impact EdGroup UK, based on tracking more than 100,000 students across 200 schools, measured what happens to students during transition to secondary school. Their data showed a stark drop in engagement when children move from primary to secondary school. For example, average pupil enjoyment scores fall from 6.0 in Year 6 to just 3.2 in Year 8.

c) Once student engagement is lost, it can be difficult to regain. Secondary pupils in the bottom quartile for engagement are 10% more likely to be persistently absent.

d) This same important message was at the heart of a blog published in July 2026 by Hannah Costanzo, Head of Policy at the PiXL Network.

In ‘What we assume about disadvantaged learners might be the biggest barrier of all’ Hannah argued that ‘assumptions about students from disadvantaged backgrounds are rarely callous. They’re usually the product of incomplete information combined with real care for the student. But they produce real consequences regardless of the care behind them.’

Hannah supports Marc Rowland’s view that the most effective approach to narrowing the disadvantage gap is learning-led: grounded in what students know and can do, informed by accurate ongoing assessment of the individual. So, knowing what each student knows and can do – and where there are gaps to be filled is the best approach for all your students including disadvantaged learners.

e) As is often the case elsewhere, KS3 requires leadership that creates the culture needed to drive challenge and ambition.

f) A simple question: to what extent does your KS3 Assessment Model test the knowledge and skills that have been taught in each subject rather than asking teachers to use flightpaths to ‘guess’ whether they are on track for specific GCSE grades (despite not following GCSE specifications in Years 7-9)? Time to ring some changes if it does not, in my opinion.

g) In many schools, Year 7 leads to an attainment dip. The Education Endowment Foundation identifies three consistent challenges that affect student progress in KS3:

• Social and emotional adjustment
• Curriculum continuity
• The reset of relationships between students and the adults who support them

h) By the end of Year 7, and certainly by Year 8, boredom and stagnation can set in, with undesirable consequences in terms of behaviour and attendance, as well as disappointing future attainment and progress in KS4.

As Mary Myatt puts it ‘KS3 isn’t a warm-up, it’s where the foundations for everything else are built. If we get KS3 right, KS4 becomes stronger, not harder.’

i) In meetings I have with schools during Year 11, it becomes clear that quite often we are discussing attendance and engagement issues that had their origins in KS3 and had been festering overlong.

j) The best way to ensure that issues that grow during KS3 are not allowed to ‘fester’ is to organise a KS3 assessment timetable that ensures significant data drops for Years 7-9 do not happen at the same time as each other, nor at the same time as any for KS4 or Sixth Form. This ensures that SLT are able to pay that data the attention it deserves.

It ensures the school has room to pay real attention to the data and make sure that the key people meet promptly to discuss it and to agree specific actions together.

k) I commend running a meeting as soon as the data is available including:

• The Headteacher
• The Deputy or Assistant Head in charge of KS3
• The SENCO
• The Head of Year (+ the Deputy Head of Year if there is one)
• The Heads of the English, Maths & Science Faculties

l) From the discussion, it is crucial that specific timed actions are delegated to individual members of the team. These might include:

• Praise assemblies for students with:
  • High engagement / attitude to learning scores
  • High attendance
  • Improved attainment since last data drop for their year group
• Identification of key students who need intervention with impact to turn them around:
  • Those whose attainment has not improved since the previous data-drop
  • Students with low attendance
  • Students with the poorest engagement / attitude to learning scores
• These students to be shared equitably between the Head, Deputy / Assistant Head and the Head of Year. Follow-up actions could include:
  • Parent(s)/Carer(s) met
  • Students spoken to and set specific relevant improvement targets (Report Cards)
  • Students could also be grouped into a competitive setting. For example, a Fantastic Achievement (FA) Cup in which they are enabled to collect points for doing the ‘right things’ by getting their FA Cup card stamped.
  • Essentially, anything that might successfully re-engage them with school.
• A clear focus on student attainment across the Core subjects to identify priorities at Faculty and teaching set level.

m) The Department for Education updated its practical guide on using a Risk of NEET Indicator (RONI) approach for education providers in July 2026. The guidance emphasises early identification from Year 7 onwards and includes case studies from schools with strong track records of supporting young people into sustained post-16 destinations.

n) Curriculum continuity can be considerably improved if INSET time is used to enable your teachers to gain a deeper understanding of what teaching and learning in Years 5 & 6 in your main feeder primary schools looks like. Obviously, this requires considerable organisation, but it will pay dividends.

• Enabling some of your KS3 teachers to visit your main feeders and observe Year 5 & 6 lessons will open eyes.
• Enabling the Year 5 and 6 teachers from your main feeders to visit your school and observe Year 7 & 8 lessons is of course equally valuable!

Step 11: Play the smart game – be ready for the ‘improved’ Progress 8 in 2029 with your new Year 9

a) At present, schools lack clarity about the future model that will be used for calculating Progress 8.

b) The final report of the Curriculum & Assessment Review recommended retaining both the Progress 8 and Attainment 8 performance measures, with “no changes to its structure or subject composition”.

c) In the most significant divergence from the review, the DfE immediately announced a Progress 8 shake-up.

d) This was followed by the DfE launching a consultation on 23 February 2026 asking for views on their proposed model for ‘improving Progress 8 and Attainment 8 measures through a refreshed Progress 8 curriculum model.’

i. English and Maths were to remain as the first two “buckets”.

ii. An additional two slot bucket would be created solely for science qualifications.

a) The remaining 4 slot “bucket” would be for breadth but must include a subject from two of these three categories: humanities, languages and creative subjects.

b) The other two subjects can be the best grades each student achieved that are not already allocated.

Figure 5: The DfE’s proposed Progress 8 and Attainment 8 slot model, as first set out in November 2025. Adapted from Department for Education (2025) Progress 8 and Attainment 8 – an explanation of the proposed improved model. London: DfE, Figure 1. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/690a8e5388a98da87e2922cb/Progress_8_and_Attainment_8_-_an_explanation_of_the_proposed_improved_model.pdf. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. 

Note: In the February 2026 consultation, slots 7 and 8 were renamed “Choice” (Department for Education (2026) Key stage 4 performance measures and targeted RISE extension: government consultation. London: DfE, Figure 1, p.10. Available at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-accountability/key-stage-4-performance-measures-and-targeted-rise).

c) Schools were recommended to take the revised measure / curriculum model into account when determining subject choices for pupils who start their GCSEs in September 2027 (those in Year 9 in 2026-27) and sit them in 2029.

d) The Consultation closed on 4th May 2026 and at the date of this article, we are still awaiting the published response –  Key stage 4 performance measures and targeted RISE extension – GOV.UK 

e) Shortly after taking office, Andy Burnham announced a significant set of changes to the education system. Under these proposals, students at Key Stage 4 will gain earlier access to technical education, skills training, work experience and direct connections with employers.

f) It remains unclear whether these changes will prompt further revision of accountability measures such as Progress 8. On balance, though, it seems unlikely in the short term: the pathways are due to launch in 2028 using existing technical awards, with new GCSE-level technical qualifications only following at a later stage.

g) Potentially, Technical Education qualifications could simply become other Open Bucket subjects (if the current P8 model were retained) or Breadth Options (if the proposals in the Consultation were adopted).

h) Clearly, it would be very useful for schools to have clarity about the P8 model for Year 9 in 2026-27 as soon as possible, as the Options process will roll around nationwide soon.

i) If the ‘improved’ model from the Consultation is introduced, I suggest these are the changes that might need careful consideration in school: 

1. Currently, Science is almost certainly the third priority faculty, behind English and maths, nationwide.
2. Science being given its own two-slot ‘bucket’ means that each student’s performance in Science has the same P8 weighting (20%) as double-weighted maths. If students have 3 Science grades, their third grade might also qualify as one of the additional grades in the breadth ‘bucket’. In other words, for Progress 8, Science needs prioritising in line with English and maths if this model is introduced.
3. The proposals in the Consultation for the Breadth ‘bucket’ are clearly good news for creative subjects, for example Art and Design, Music, Drama, Dance, and (possibly) Design and Technology. As two of the four breadth ‘bucket’ subjects must come from two of Creative Subjects, Humanities and Languages many more students may well be encouraged to study a creative subject than under the current P8 model.
4. If they are, students must at least take one Humanity or one Language to comply with the breadth ‘bucket’ rules. This too may have an impact on the curriculum. Will schools be tempted to restrict Language take-up to those who seem likely to achieve a grade that demonstrates progress from their KS2 baseline? If so, then – in some schools – the numbers of students taking Geography or History seem likely to rise.

Step 12: Culture Eats Strategy: Strengthening ‘belonging’ in your school or MAT

a) In ’99 Ways to Improve your Sixth Form’ I deliberately started by emphasising the crucial importance of culture and leadership. I am choosing to end this time around by doing the same.

b) In 99 Ways, I state ‘unless you have the right culture in place your strategies are much more likely to fall flat. The importance of creating the right culture for learning and aspiration cannot be overstated.’

c) ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’ was the key theme of my webinar with the amazing Julian Appleyard OBE a couple of years ago.

d) Creating a culture in the whole school or Trust community that earns buy-in from staff, students, parents/carers is the surest way to put the building blocks for school improvement in place as so many of the great leaders I have been privileged to work alongside have proven.

e) ‘Belonging’ is a good indicator of whether the actual culture in your school achieves buy-in from the students. A DfE study, by Pallavi Banerjee at the University of Cambridge, linking PISA and National Pupil Database analysis of 16-year-olds in England found lower GCSE attainment among students who said they did not belong at school. After accounting for factors including KS2 attainment, free school meal eligibility, ethnicity, gender, special educational needs and reported bullying, students who strongly disagreed that they belonged at school scored 7.72 points lower on Attainment 8 than those who strongly agreed. This is a gap almost equivalent to a full GCSE grade across eight subjects.

f) Establish a culture of continuous incremental improvement every day by everyone, students, teachers, and support staff. Truly ‘outstanding’ schools and Trusts are ‘restless’ places where everyone believes they can improve.

Closing Statement from Alps Education

At Alps, we believe that every student deserves the chance to aim higher – and every school deserves the clarity to make that happen. For 25 years, we’ve helped schools and colleges turn assessment data into meaningful action, giving leaders and teachers the clear insight they need to close gaps early, target support where it matters most and drive genuine progress at every key stage.

Alps Connect supports schools through KS4 and KS5, and Alps Ascent KS3 now brings that same clarity to the years that build the foundations for everything that follows. Together, they give schools a consistent, evidence-led view of attainment and progress from Year 7 through to Year 13 – helping every student get the best possible start, and the best possible outcome. 

If this briefing paper has raised questions about where your school’s priorities are, we’d love to help you find the answers. Get in touch with the Alps team to find out more.

About the author: John Philip

John started working with Alps in 2008, while he was working at Little Heath Comprehensive School. At Little Heath, John used Alps to achieve top 2% performance in value-added terms. He also worked with schools regionally and nationally through the Raising Achievement Partnership Programme. Since leaving Little Heath in 2010, John additionally worked as an associate for 22 secondary schools through PiXL.