Analysis of DfE 2024 IB benchmark
2024 IB Results in England
This article presents an overview of the findings from the Alps review of the DfE national dataset from 2024.
It concludes with an overview of the recommendations for benchmark selection for analysing your 2024 results for IB and for monitoring your Year 13 and 12 cohorts across 2024/25 and 2025/26.
2024 IB - Alps analysis, MEGs and MEPs
Prior attainment baselines have been disrupted across the pandemic and this has had an impact on the value-added picture. In the absence of national data over the intervening years, the benchmark in Connect and Summit is the 2019 DfE national dataset.
The 2024 results saw the return of an examined baseline and examined outcome set for Key Stage 5 students, and as a result we do have the 2024 DfE national dataset.
We have now had the opportunity to generate subject benchmarks and Minimum Expected Grades based on this DfE 2024 dataset.
The table below shows the distribution of students across each of the Alps prior attainment bands, and how these compare between 2024 and 2019 DfE datasets. In addition it highlights the changes in Minimum Expected Points and Grades between the two sets of data.
The tables reflect the elevated prior attainment occurring since the pandemic, with increased numbers of students in the top Alps Band.
There has been an impact on the points required to reach the 75th percentile, with 2024 outcomes lower than the pre-pandemic 2019 level.
What happens now with the 2024 DfE national benchmark?
In June 2025 we released the 2024 DfE national benchmark into Connect and Summit. The benchmark has applied to historical gradepoints only, namely the gradepoints for KS5 A level from September 2023 up to and including the examination gradepoint for 2024.
The 2024 DfE national data will NOT be used for gradepoints from September 2024 onwards, in other words for monitoring your current Year 13 and 12 students, or the examination results in 2025. We believe that the 2019 national data provides more representative analysis for the 2025 examinations in terms of value-added.
Summer 2025 outcomes, value-added and the recommended benchmark
Your current Year 13 students are set to return to a profile more similar to 2019:
- Students in Year 13 for 2024.25 sat GCSE examinations in 2023 where standards returned to levels more similar to 2019.
- Examination outcomes for this cohort remain to be established, but are likely to be similar to levels somewhere between 2019 and 2024 depending on the ability of the cohort.
Therefore, the 2019 national dataset would be the most likely choice when monitoring this cohort across their KS5 courses.
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