Using the Qualifications in Wales (QiW) database for school performance information in Wales

Mae’r ddogfen yma hefyd ar gael yn Gymraeg. This document is also available in Welsh.

Digital ISBN 978 1 78859 513 1 © Crown copyright March 2020 WG33551

Contents

Version control 2

Introduction 3

Overview of performance information 4

Performance Information 5

Contribution Values – [Year] 6

Searching for a qualification 7

Searching by age approval 7

Searching by qualification type 8

Searching by performance measures 9

Status of a qualification 11

Exporting qualification data 12

1 Export in Welsh / English 12

2 Export with grades in Welsh / English 12

3 Complete export in Welsh / English 14

Changes to performance information on QiW 15

Annex 1 - Description of performance fields 17

Annex 2 - FAQs 18

2

Version control

Version Date Purpose/Change

1 26/02/2020 Changed to reflect new QiW performance information functions.

3

Introduction

1. Qualifications in Wales (QiW) is a database owned and managed by

Qualifications Wales, the regulator of non-degree qualifications and the

qualifications system in Wales. QiW contains details of all qualifications

that are approved or designated for teaching in Wales for learners

aged under 19, excluding higher education. Any qualifications that are

approved or designated by Qualifications Wales will be eligible for

funding by a Local Authority or by the Welsh Government. Note that

this funding is for the education provider, not the learner. The

information held in QiW includes:

qualification titles

qualification numbers

the Awarding Body that awards each qualification

qualification start and end dates

links to further qualification information

Welsh Government information including whether it counts as a choice

for 14-19 Learning Pathways, and performance measures information.

2. This user guide will provide a brief overview of the functionality

available on QiW, as relevant to performance information, and how to

search for a qualification based on desired criteria. It will show how and

why the Welsh Government updates performance information on their

‘Performance and Curriculum Information’ page. A FAQs section will

provide answers to common queries relating to Welsh Government

information on QiW.

3. Please note that the Welsh Government sets policy on school

performance measurement and decides on the allocation of

contribution values of qualifications, performance points and the

discount codes applied to individual qualifications. QiW hosts this

information.

4. If you have any queries on how qualifications contribute towards

performance measures, including GCSE/A level equivalency values,

performance points or discount codes, please check QiW in the first

instance. If you are unable to find the answer to your question, please

contact ims@gov.wales.

4

Overview of performance information

5. QiW contains performance and curriculum information for all qualifications up to and including Level 3. This can be found by selecting the ‘Performance and Curriculum Information’ button on the main ‘View Qualification’ page, as shown below. The information in this section is maintained by the Welsh Government.

6. On this page, you can find a range of performance and curriculum information related to the qualification, as shown below.

5

Performance Information

7. This section includes the:

Reporting Year – this is the reporting year when the relevant learners will reach the Year 11 cohort being measured. You can use the drop-down list to select the reporting year you are interested in - this will show if and how the qualification can contribute towards the relevant performance measures in that reporting year.

Discounting code: the discounting code determines whether or not the performance values of a qualification will discount against those of other qualifications. If two qualifications have the same discounting code, the one with the highest performance values will count towards the relevant performance measures. This ensures that performance tables only give credit once for teaching a single course of study where a learner has taken more than one qualification in the same subject area.

8. You can find out which other qualifications will discount against the qualification being viewed by selecting the ‘view qualifications with the same discounting code’ option, as shown above.

9. Where a qualification has different syllabus options, only one QN / QWAD number will appear on QiW. However, discount codes for the individual syllabus variations may be different; a full list can be found here.

6

Contribution Values – [Year]

10. This section contains tables of the performance values attributed to each possible grade for the qualification in the reporting year you have selected above. The contribution values are separated into two main sections:

Point Score Values – this shows the points value that each grade can contribute to the relevant performance measures and whether or not the qualification can contribute to the individual performance measures and/or subject-specific slots of the Capped 9 (interim).

11. A brief description of each field is provided at Annex 1.

Threshold Values - you can also find the legacy threshold values for the qualification i.e. the contribution each grade would make towards each legacy threshold measure. Note that from 2019 the Key Stage 4 threshold measures have been replaced by the interim Key Stage 4 performance measures, which are all based on points scores. The threshold values, other than Level 3 for post-16 learners, continue to be provided on QiW for information purposes only.

12. A brief description of each field is provided at Annex 1.

7

Searching for a qualification

13. QiW includes a number of options for searching for a qualification(s)

based on key criteria and exporting the results data, if required.

Searching by age approval

14. Searching QiW by the age range of a qualification allows you to see all

of the qualifications that are approved for pre-16/post-16 delivery, and

therefore can count in Key Stage 4/Post-16 performance information. A

qualification must have pre-16 age range approval (denoted “-16”

within the “age ranges” field) for Key Stage 4 measures, and pre-16 or

16-18 age approval for Post-16 measures. These can be selected in

the search screen as shown below.

15. Without pre-16 approval / designation, a qualification will have no Key

Stage 4 performance information, and will not be included in the Key

Stage 4 summer results.

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Searching by qualification type

16. You can also search by the type of qualification in order to look at, for

example, only GCSEs. To do this, select the relevant qualification type

from the drop down list, as shown below:

17. Note that you can also export your search results, where required. This is achieved by selecting the ‘Export to CSV’ button on the right hand side of the screen once you have filtered your results, as shown below.

9

Searching by performance measures

18. From 2019, there are a number of new search functions available on QiW related to the Key Stage 4 interim performance measures. These are:

Counts towards Literacy slot/measure – selecting ‘yes’ will return a list of qualifications which can contribute to both the literacy measure and the subject-specific literacy slot of the Capped 9 Points Score (interim).

Counts towards Numeracy slot/measure - selecting ‘yes’ will return a list of qualifications which can contribute to both the numeracy measure and the subject-specific numeracy slot of the Capped 9 Points Score (interim).

Counts towards Science slot/measure - selecting ‘yes’ will return a list of qualifications which can contribute to both the science measure and the subject-specific science slot of the Capped 9 Points Score (interim).

Counts toward Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate - selecting ‘yes’ will return a list of qualifications which can contribute to the Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate measure.

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19. Once you have selected ‘Yes’ for the measure you are interested in, you can use the ‘Choose fields’ option to select which fields are returned with your search results. As a minimum, it is recommended that you always include the ‘QW Approval/Designation no.’ and ‘Qualification title’ to ensure you can understand the results. See example below.

20. Note that, there is no specific Capped 9 search function as all qualifications approved or designated for delivery to pre-16 learners in Wales can contribute to the Capped 9 Points Score (interim). However, you can return a full list of qualifications that can contribute towards the Capped 9 by selecting the “-16” option under age ranges, as shown below.

11

Status of a qualification

21. There are four statuses that a qualification can have:

Coming soon – qualifications with this status are not yet ready for delivery in Wales, and no performance information has been applied to them. Once the start date of the qualification has been reached, performance information will be generated and its status will change to ‘Available to learners’.

Available to learners – if a qualification has this status, it means that performance information has been applied and it is within its certification end date and operational end date. New learners can enrol onto this course.

No longer available to new learners – this means that the qualification has exceeded its operational end date, and so new learners are no longer able to enrol onto the course. This is still within its certification end date, and so will have performance information attached to it.

No longer available – if a qualification is listed as no longer available, it means that the certification end date has now passed.

12

Exporting qualification data

22. QiW includes a number of options for extracting qualification data,

which will be downloaded into a CSV file.

1 Export in Welsh / English

23. If you only want to export current qualifications, then you can select the

‘Export in Welsh/English’ or ‘Export with grades in Welsh/English’

buttons. These exports only include qualifications with ‘Coming Soon’,

‘Available to learners’ and ‘No longer available to new learners’

statuses.

2 Export with grades in Welsh / English

24. The ‘Export with grades in Welsh/English’ selection includes

performance information for each grade within the qualification and for

each reporting year. In addition to performance information for legacy

performance measures, from 2019, these exports include the following

four new columns in relation to interim Key Stage 4 performance

measures, which appear at the end of the extract:

Column Export Field Name

BC Capped Points Score (interim) – Literacy (2019 onwards)

BD Capped Points Score (interim) – Numeracy (2019 onwards)

BE Capped Points Score (interim) – Science (2019 onwards)

BF Capped Points Score (interim) – Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate (2019 onwards)

13

25. These are all ‘Yes/No’ fields showing whether or not the qualification is

eligible to count towards the relevant measure / subject-specific slots of

the Capped 9 (interim), in that reporting year. Note that any reporting

years prior to 2019 (when the new measures were introduced) will be

blank for the above columns and should therefore be treated as ‘No’.

26. These fields should be viewed in conjunction with the following existing

fields, which together provide the points value attached to each

possible grade and for each reporting year, for all qualifications. This

will be the value the grade/qualification can contribute towards the

applicable measure/s.

Column Export Field Name

AP Grading Scale

AQ Performance points

BB Reporting year

27. In addition, you should look at the discounting code field, which

identifies whether or not the qualifications will discount against other

qualifications (this will be the case where they have the same

discounting code).

Column Export Field Name

AG Discounting code

28. The ‘Size Contribution field’ also continues to be used from 2019

onwards in the calculation of the Capped 9 points score (interim). This

field is used to determine ‘standardised points’ i.e. the points for a

qualification calculated proportionally to a volume equivalent to one

GCSE.

29. The fields listed below, which relate to the previous version of the

Capped 9 and KS4 threshold measures, are no longer used for the

purposes of KS4 performance measures. They continue to be provided

for historical information purposes but may contain no data for

reporting years 2019 onwards.

14

Column Export Field Name

AH Is this subject to the 40% limit on non-GCSEs?

AI Counts towards CSI 2016

AJ Counts towards L2 inc. language/maths component

AR L1 threshold

AS L2 threshold

AU Level 2 inclusive - Literacy

AV Level 2 inclusive - Numeracy

AX Capped Points Score - Literacy

AY Capped Points Score - Maths Numeracy

AZ Capped Points Score - Maths

BA Capped Points Score - Science

3 Complete export in Welsh / English

30. In order to obtain a list of all qualifications on the QiW database, you

can select the ‘Complete Export in English/Welsh’ button. This export

will include archived qualifications that are listed as ‘No longer

available to learners’ where they have passed their certification end

date, as well as qualifications that are ‘Coming Soon’ and so currently

have no performance information.

31. The extract shows the same performance fields as described at point 2

above.

32. These files are updated every time a qualification status changes in

QiW to ensure that, at the date a user downloads it, it is completely

accurate.

15

Changes to performance information on QiW

33. The performance information for a reporting year will remain

unchanged from 31st August of the previous year, starting from 2018.

For example, this means that the performance information for 2022 will

be ‘frozen’ on 31 August 2021.

34. The only exception to this will be a manual change applied by the

Welsh Government when performance information has generated in

error or where key qualification details have been changed by the

awarding organisation and/or Qualifications Wales.

35. This includes changes to the following fields:

Guided Learning Hours (GLH) – The GLH value is used to calculate

the appropriate ‘size band’ of a qualification - this determines its GCSE

/ A level size equivalence and consequently, its performance values. If

a change to the GLH value changes the size band of the qualification,

this may result in an increase or decrease to its performance values.

Age-range – As qualifications need to be approved or designated for

delivery to certain age groups in order to count towards the relevant

performance measures, changes to age-range will impact on

performance values. For example, if a qualification is no longer

approved or designated for pre-16 delivery, it can no longer count

towards KS4 performance measures.

Grading Structure – Different performance points are allocated to a

qualification based on the grade achieved. This value is determined

using ‘base points’ tables for the relevant grading structure (based on

the level of the qualification and number of grades). Therefore, if the

grading structure is changed, the relevant base points and the

performance values will also be affected.

Certification End Date – If the Certification End Date for a

qualification is changed, the reporting years in which it can count

towards performance measures will also be affected. For example, if

the qualification had a certification end date of 31 August 2022 and this

was brought forward to 31 August 2020, the qualification would no

longer count in the reporting years 2021 onwards. The exception to this

is where learners take a qualification early and it is awarded in a year

when QiW shows it as contributing to performance measures. In this

case, the qualification will count towards the relevant performance

measures in the reporting year when the learner reaches the Year 11

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cohort being measured (irrespective of what is shown on QiW for that

year).

36. If the Certification End Date was extended, it would count towards the

relevant performance measures in the additional reporting years. Note:

This may need to be updated manually by the Welsh Government so

may not immediately appear as expected on QiW. Please email

ims@gov.wales if you believe the performance information is wrong.

37. Where the changes outlined above result in a notable reduction to

performance values, schools will generally be afforded a grace period

before the performance points are reduced on QiW. This is to ensure

that schools are not unfairly disadvantaged where pupils have already

started a course before the relevant change was made. The grace

period will be proportionate to the time it is expected to take to teach

the course based on its size equivalence to a GCSE (for Level 2

qualifications) or to an A level for Level 3 qualifications, as shown

below.

Size Equivalence Grace Period

Less than 1 GCSE 1 reporting year

1 or more GCSEs 2 reporting years

Less than 1 A Level 1 reporting year

1 or more A Levels 2 reporting years

38. For more information on how the Welsh Government calculates

performance information, based on the qualification details provided by

Qualifications Wales, please see the School performance

measurement: contribution values of qualifications guidance on the

Welsh Government website.

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Annex 1 - Description of performance fields

Field Description

Points Score Values

Grading Scale This shows separate rows for each possible grade that can be attained for the qualification.

Key Stage 4 Measures

Size contribution of the qualification

The size of the qualification equivalent to a GCSE.

Capped Points Score

The points value each grade can contribute to the Capped 9 Points Score (interim). This is also the value it can contribute to the relevant standalone measures if it is an eligible qualification as identified by the fields below.

Capped Points Score - Literacy

A ‘yes’ or ‘no’ field showing whether or not the qualification can contribute to the standalone Literacy measure and specified Literacy slot of the Capped 9 Points Score (interim).

Capped Points Score - Numeracy

A ‘yes’ or ‘no’ field showing whether or not the qualification can contribute to the standalone Numeracy measure and specified Numeracy slot of the Capped 9 Points Score (interim).

Capped Points Score - Science

A ‘yes’ or ‘no’ field showing whether or not the qualification can contribute to the standalone Numeracy measure and specified Numeracy slot of the Capped 9 Points Score (interim).

Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate

A ‘yes’ or ‘no’ field showing whether or not the qualification can contribute to the Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate measure.

Post-16 Measures

Points Score This is the number of points the qualification can contribute to the post-16 performance measures.

Grading Scale The scale for how the qualification is graded. This shows separate rows for each possible grade with varying performance values depending on the grade achieved.

Threshold Values

Key Stage 4 Measures

Level 1 Threshold The value the qualification can contribute to the Level 1 threshold measure, equivalent to a GCSE.

Level 2 Threshold The value the qualification can contribute to the Level 2 threshold measure, equivalent to a GCSE.

Level 2 inclusive - Literacy

A ‘yes’ or ‘no’ field showing whether or not the qualification can contribute to the literacy subject-specific requirement of the Level 2 inclusive measure.

Level 2 inclusive – Numeracy

A ‘yes’ or ‘no’ field showing whether or not the qualification can contribute to the numeracy subject-specific requirement of the Level 2 inclusive measure.

Post-16 Measures

Level 3 Threshold The value the qualification can contribute to the Level 3 threshold measure, equivalent to an A level.

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Annex 2 - FAQs

1) How do I check that a qualification will count in performance

measures? Step 1: In the first instance, please search for the relevant qualification on

QiW. All qualifications approved/designated for delivery in Wales appear on

QiW and will contribute towards performance measures subject to the same

conditions. Check the specified ‘Performance and Curriculum Information’

(using the button shown below) for the relevant qualification to see how it

currently counts towards the relevant measures.

If you are unable to find an entry for the qualification then you may wish to

enquire with Qualifications Wales (see Step 4) or with the awarding

organisation directly.

Step 2: Check that the qualification meets the following criteria:

Appropriate age range: the qualification must have pre-16 age range

approval for Key Stage 4 measures, and pre-16 or 16-18 age approval

for Post-16 measures.

Reporting year for the pupil cohort in question is before

certification end date: a qualification is included in Welsh

Government performance information for a reporting year if the

certification end date of the qualification is on or after 1st September of

that academic year. For example, a qualification is included in

performance information for 2019 if the certification end date of the

qualification is on or after 1st September 2018.

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Note: the exception to this is where a pupil takes a qualification early (before

the certification end date has lapsed) when the qualification still counted

towards the relevant performance measures, but, by the time the pupil

reached the Year 11 cohort being measured, QiW shows that the qualification

does not count in that reporting year. In this instance, it is the performance

information for the year the qualification was awarded that is used to calculate

performance measures and the qualification would therefore continue to

count.

Step 3: Consider:

Discounting rules - please check discount codes on QiW to see if

qualifications will discount against each other and will therefore not all

count towards the measures if awarded to an individual pupil. You can

use the ‘View qualifications with the same discounting code’ option as

shown below. Qualifications that have multiple discount codes can be

found on our website.

Check our guidance on the interim performance measures and how

qualifications can contribute towards them here.

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Step 4: Please note that decisions on the approval/designation of

qualifications for delivery in Wales are the responsibility of the regulatory

body, Qualifications Wales. As such, any queries about the continued

approval/designation of a qualification should be sent directly to Qualifications

Wales at:

General enquiries: enquiries@qualificationswales.org

Recognition and Approval: recognitionandapproval@qualificationswales.org

2) What is the difference between the performance information for reporting years 2018 and 2019 onwards?

From 2019, the performance information presented on QiW has been changed to reflect the introduction of the interim Key Stage 4 performance measures. ‘Threshold values’ continue to be provided for information purposes only. NEW QiW ‘Contribution values’ display – 2019 onwards

As shown above, the ‘Points Score Values’ section has been changed as follows:

Capped Points Score – Literacy: No change.

Capped Points Score – Numeracy: This combines the previous ‘Capped Points Score – Maths Numeracy’ and ‘Capped Points Score – Maths’ columns. This shows whether the qualification can count towards the Numeracy slot of the Capped 9 and standalone Numeracy measure.

21

Capped Points Score – Science: This is now a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ column (instead of the previous ‘0 of 2’, ‘1 of 2’ or ‘2 of 2’) showing whether the qualification can count towards the Science slot of the Capped 9 and standalone Science measure.

Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate: This is a new column showing whether the qualification can count towards the standalone Welsh Baccalaureate - Skills Challenge Certificate measure.

OLD QiW ‘Contribution values’ display – pre-2019

3) What is the difference between the ‘pre-16/post-16 choice’ field and

the ‘age range’ fields?

On the Welsh Government ‘Performance and Curriculum Information page, in

the curriculum section, you will see pre-16 and post-16 choice fields (shown

below).

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These are the curriculum fields, which show whether the qualification is

classed as a choice or not for pre-16 learners in terms of meeting the

Learning and Skills (Wales) Measure 2009. This cannot be used to

determine if a qualification will be included in school performance

measures.

To determine if a qualification will be included in performance measures, the

relevant ‘Age ranges’ field on the main ‘View Qualification’ page (shown

below) must be checked.