Attainment 8

Attainment 8 measures a student's average grade across eight subjects – the same subjects that count towards Progress 8. This measure is designed to encourage schools to offer a broad, well-balanced curriculum.

The eight subjects fit into three groups:

1. English and maths. These are double-weighted, which means they count twice. There are rules around how English and maths qualifications are added to this group and how to count them: see the Department for Education's Progress 8 page.
2. English Baccalaureate (Ebacc). These are the highest scores from the sciences, computer science, geography, history and languages.
3. Open group. Any remaining GCSEs and other approved academic, arts or vocational qualifications.

Calculating Attainment 8

A student’s Attainment 8 score is calculated by adding up their points for their eight subjects and dividing by 10 to get their Attainment 8 score. Students don't have to take eight subjects, but they score zero for any unfilled slots.

GCSE qualifications from 2017

Points are allocated to GCSEs on a 9 to 1 point scale corresponding to the new 9 to 1 grades, eg a grade 9 gets 9 points in the performance measures.

Unreformed, legacy GCSEs are mapped onto the 9 to 1 scale (with 8.5 being the maximum points available for unreformed GCSEs) – see the table below.

The school's Attainment 8 score is the average of all students' scores.

Discounting: how to add points when qualifications overlap

Once a reformed GCSE is awarded, that's the only GCSE or equivalent qualification for that subject that can count in the tables.

If a student takes an AS and a GCSE in the same subject, the AS points will always discount the GCSE points.

There's more detail in our video below (read video transcript), and on the DfE’s Progress 8 and Attainment 8 guidance pages.