Hitting the Ground Running in September 2025 – Wales KS5

Hitting the Ground Running in September 2025 – Wales KS5

Setting priorities for Y13 as a Post-16 Leader in Wales

Now that the Autumn Term is underway for schools and colleges in Wales, here are some reflections from Alps on setting Post-16 priorities for Y13. 

1. Understand Your Context: Raw Attainment

Table 1 shows how results in 2025 compare with results awarded from 2019 to 2025. 

Table 1 (adapted from JCQ data)

In Wales A Level results were brought back close to pre-pandemic standards in 2025 as in 2024.  

A-level grades in Wales were slightly higher than in 2024 except at A*-A.  

Results were also higher in 2025 than in 2019 except at A*-D & A*-E. 

Table 2 shows how the results awarded in England in 2025 compare with results awarded in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Table 2 (adapted from JCQ data)

Results at A* were highest in Wales. 

At all other grade thresholds results were highest in Northern Ireland.  

In Wales & Northern Ireland UMS achieved in AS units contributes 40% to A Level grades. 

2. Understand Your Context: Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales results

This is the first summer where we have grades awarded for the Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales.  

The grades for this new qualification are lower at A*, A*-A and A*-E than the Advanced Skills Challenge certificate in 2024, but higher at A* and A*-A than in 2019.  

Pass rates (A*-E) are lower for this qualification than during the last 7 years of the Skills Challenge Certificate. 

Graph A from the WJEC shows the 2025 Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales results.

Graph A
Table 3 shows results in the Skills Challenge Certificate from 2017 to 2024. 
Table 3 (from the WJEC)

3. Understand your context: Vocational results

Criminology remains much the most popular vocational subject in Wales. 

Table 4 from the WJEC shows the vocational results awarded in 2025 across Wales & England. 

Table 4

4. Understand your context: AS Level results

The AS results were brought down towards 2019 standard in 2025 again, so were lower than in either 2022 or 2023 which were treated as transitional recovery years from the pandemic by Qualifications Wales. 

AS results at all thresholds were slightly higher in 2025 than in 2024. 

AS results at all thresholds were also slightly higher in 2025 than in 2019.  

Table 5 shows how results in 2025 compare with results awarded from 2019 to 2024. 

Table 5 (adapted from JCQ data)
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Question to ask yourself: How does your school or college’s performance compare with these national A Level, Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales, Vocational and AS results? 

5. Understand your context: Value-added

Once again in 2025, Alps is offering two different benchmarks to evaluate your A Level value-added against:  
  1. The 2019 benchmark, based on DfE data & 2019 Welsh customer data 
  2. The 2025 Alps Welsh customer benchmark  
On Results Day, your value-added was calculated against our 2019 benchmark.  
Alps chose this as the most appropriate benchmark because results were being set by Qualifications Wales at 2019 standards as in 2024.  
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However, GCSE results in Wales were awarded more generously than normal in Wales in 2023. Students who sat A Levels in 2025 had higher than normal prior attainment. This means that the 2019 benchmark (containing prior attainment awarded normally in 2017) is an inexact match to evaluate 2025 progress against. 
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Alps has produced a robust client benchmark based on the results of our customers in Wales in 2025 to take the higher prior attainment into account. This is therefore the fairest benchmark to use to evaluate value-added progress in Wales in 2025. 

Question to ask yourself: How did your school or college perform against these two benchmarks, and which one are you using to review performance and establish priorities based on your 2025 results? 

6. Set priorities based on your school or college’s performance in 2025. Key questions for this time of year:

  1. What strategic priorities emerge from your raw AS & A Level results? 
  2. What strategic priorities emerge from your AS & A Level value-added? 
  3. Was the performance of any significant student group concerning? 
  4. Which subjects performed best and least well at AS & A Level in 2025? 
  5. Which subjects predicted final grades most or least accurately in 2025? 
  6. Which subjects had inconsistent performance at teaching set level? 
  7. What are you doing right now to try to consolidate strengths and eradicate weaknesses in 2025-26? 

7. Set priorities based on your new Y13’s AS results. Key questions and suggestions for this time of year:

  1. What strategic ‘data’ priorities had already emerged before the end of the Summer Term in Y12?  
  2. What priorities relating to attendance or attitude to learning or mental health etc were significant issues during Y12? 
  3. What strategic priorities have emerged from this cohort’s AS results?  
  4. Which AS subjects have retained comparatively low percentages of students into Y13 for A Level in September 2025? What issues does this reveal? 
  5. As some students may have either left school or college in the summer or dropped or switched a subject for Y13 or gone back to Y12, at Alps we suggest uploading a Monitoring Point Zero (MPZ) at the start of Y13.  
    • Essentially this is AS results’ data but edited to only include students now in Y13 and only showing grades in subjects they are continuing to study in Y13.  
    • Sets / teachers should also be adjusted so all Y13 teachers can see their Y13 set’s baseline based on AS performance. 
  6. The academic year often begins with in-depth evaluation of results in Raising Standards meetings with subject leads. Perhaps this Autumn meetings also need to focus on current Y13, where they appear to be based AS results, and how best to move forwards effectively. 
  7. As always, there is much that we do not yet know and will have little ability to control. So, we recommend that you prioritise those things you can control, such as the quality of teaching and learning, the quality of guidance and support, and the quality of your leadership at all levels.
  8. Create a realistic assessment timetable with subject leads to enable students to practice and master the skills required in examinations.
  9. Take decisions now about AS re-sits to improve AS UMS. Can students who are targeting improving AS marks be additionally accommodated in Y12 lessons? 
  10. Which other priorities are now in place because of any disappointing surprises in terms of Y13’s results in 2025? 
  11. Your top priority must involve putting the students’ needs and interests first, aiming for each to reach their potential and, perhaps crucially, to achieve positive post-18 pathways. 

8. Target-setting and tracking in Connect (Year 12 & 13)

  • Results in 2026 and 2027 will be awarded close to 2019 standards. 
  • Our 2025 Welsh client benchmark contains higher prior attainment that was awarded transitionally in 2023. This may not be as useful for tracking current Y12 and Y13 who were awarded GCSE results set close to 2019 standards in 2024 and 2025. 
  • Therefore, our clear advice is to set targets (MEGs) and track progress using the 2019 standard benchmark. 
  • After A Level Results Day in 2026, we will again analyse Welsh customer data as early as possible and make value-added analysis based on the actual 2026 results in Wales available to our schools and colleges. 
  • Use Alps Connect effectively throughout the year to help identify subjects, sets, student groups and students for support (& praise). 
  • We recommend a sharp focus on the subjects that are taken by larger cohorts of students as these subjects will have the most significant impact on this cohort’s outcomes and destinations and your value-added. 

    • Free Alps Champions Webinar - Hitting the Ground Running: Wales KS5

    This blog is a companion piece to our Alps webinar ‘Hitting the Ground Running: KS5 Wales' which goes out live at 3.30pm on Tuesday 23rd September 2025. This webinar will also demonstrate how to use Alps Connect most effectively when tracking progress.

     To register go to Hitting the Ground Running Webinar - Wales KS5
     
    In the meantime, if you require further technical or educational support, contact us at support@alps.education or education@alps.education