TWO of Monmouthshire’s comprehensive schools performed above expectations in last summer’s GCSE exams and two below.

Councillors, who were presented with data on school performance in GCSE and vocational qualifications for youngsters aged 15 and 16 at the end of compulsory education, were told the figures are used to look for “outliers” in how schools compare across Wales.

Ed Pryce, the assistant director of the Gwent Education Achievement Service, presented the data for the summer 2024 exams to Monmouthshire County Council’s performance and overview scrutiny committee and told councillors: “We look for outliers that are significantly below or above average, that’s what school improvement officers look for.”

He said each school’s individual report pack is 110 pages long and schools have been discussing their results with the service, which works across the region, and council education officials since the autumn.

A scoring system awards points for every GCSE grade in a pupil’s nine best subjects and vocational qualifications can also count towards the score.

Known as the Capped Nine, grades must include those in English, mathematics and science, and Welsh for Welsh medium schools, and there is a difference of six points between each GCSE grade, so an A is worth 12 more points than a C.

School scores are then judged against those of others in their “family of schools” grouped together across Wales on factors such as the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals and who live in the most deprived areas.

Monmouthshire’s four secondary schools are in the second, third and fifth least disadvantaged families.

Chepstow and Monmouth schools are in the second least disadvantaged group with Caldicot in the third least disadvantaged group and Abergavenny’s King Henry VIII School in the fifth group with 22 per cent of its pupils entitled to free school meals.

The Capped Nine scores for Chepstow and King Henry were significantly above the average score for their families while Monmouth and Caldicot were below their averages by what Mr Pryce described as “small margins”.

Chepstow’s score was 35.8 points above its family average and King Henry’s 22.6 points while Caldicot was 6.3 points below its family average and Monmouth 10.7 under.

A difference of 54 points indicates on average, every learner in a school is performing above or below the family by a whole GCSE grade in every subject as six points multiplied by nine subjects equals 54 points.

Chepstow pupils on average perform approximately half a grade better in every subject compared with their peers in the family, and King Henry by approximately one third of a grade.

Schools are also compared to the Welsh Government’s “modelled outcome” line of expected performance and the system used means half of all schools in Wales will always be above the modelled outcome line and the other half below it.

On that comparison Chepstow and King Henry were above the line and Caldicot and Monmouth below. Mr Pryce said no Monmouthshire schools finished “significantly below” the line.