The prior attainment is crucial to your Alps analysis as it provides the baseline score from which we can measure your students’ progress. Without this baseline, we won’t be able to provide value-add analysis.

The following import steps are specifically for KS5 students in Northern Ireland:

If you did not import your prior attainment in the Year Group import or you need to calculate the Prior Attainment, please click on + Add Data to launch the Import Prior Attainment wizard.

Select 'Use my own GCSE Scores'. 

1. For NI schools using 9-1 grades, here are what the grades for the full course GCSEs are worth: 9 = 8, 8 = 7.67, 7 = 7, 6 = 6.33, 5 = 5.67, 4 = 5, 3 = 4, 2 = 3, 1 = 1.  
2. For NI schools using A*-G grades, here are what the grades for the full course GCSEs are worth: A* = 8, A = 7, B = 6, C* = 5.5, C = 5, D = 4, E = 3, F = 2, G = 1, U = 0. 
3. We recommend that you use the Find and Replace (ctrl + F) tool to quickly convert the GCSE grades to their Alps Points equivalents. 
   
4. Please treat the Combined Science grades as two separate grades in your calculation, by splitting them out over two separate columns in Excel.
   
5. Exclude any BTEC/vocational courses from your calculation. 
   

If you have any short course GCSEs, please follow these steps when calculating your scores:

1. For NI schools using 9-1 grades, here are what the grades for the full course GCSEs are worth: 9 = 8, 8 = 7.67, 7 = 7, 6 = 6.33, 5 = 5.67, 4 = 5, 3 = 4, 2 = 3, 1 = 1. The short courses are worth half of these full courses, and should also have a weighting of 0.5 when calculating the scores. 
2. For NI schools using A*-G grades, here are what the grades for the full course GCSEs are worth: A* = 8, A = 7, B = 6, C* = 5.5, C = 5, D = 4, E = 3, F = 2, G = 1, U = 0. The short courses are worth half of these full courses, and should also have a weighting of 0.5 when calculating the scores. 
3. We recommend that you use the Find and Replace (ctrl + F) tool to quickly convert the GCSE grades to the Alps Points equivalents. 
   
4. Please treat the Combined Science grades as two separate grades in your calculation, by splitting them out over two separate columns in Excel.
   
5. Exclude any BTEC/vocational courses from your calculation. 
   

When calculating your scores with short courses you will need to create an equivalence row at the bottom of your Marksheet to count how many GCSEs each subject is worth. A full course is worth 1 and a short course is worth 0.5, as shown in this example:

Then you need to convert your GCSE Grades to their Alps Points equivalent:

The GCSE Short Course is worth 4 Alps Points, because it is worth half the amount of a full course. A full course GCSE Grade of 9 is worth 8, so a short course GCSE Grade of 9 is worth 4. 

The calculation you need to use is as follows:

Total sum of points divided by GCSE equivalence. 

In the example below, I have 5 full courses and 1 short course, which is equal to 5.5 GCSEs. 

My total points are 42.34 (8 + 8 + 7.67 + 7.67 + 7 + 4). 

So, I need to divide 42.43 by 5.5, which comes out at 7.69.

See example below:

If you need to import additional data, including prior attainment, please go to Students, use the drop-down lists to navigate to your Academic Year and Year Group, then click on Import Additional Data. Choose Update and merge, shown below. You can then launch the import wizards from this screen. This applies for all Key Stages in all countries.

Once you have imported your students’ prior attainment, you will be able to import personalised targets. This process is very similar to the other grades imports, and is covered in more detail in the Personalised Targets Article.