The Pixl schools network, which represents more than 1,500 secondaries, has said its members appear to be overwhelmingly pleased with their English language IGCSE results this year after a “volatile, irrational” set of results last summer.

Sir John Rowling, the organisation’s chair, told TES that he had been in contact with member schools since results were published by the Cambridge International Examinations board yesterday.

“Not a single one is displeased; not a single one says there’s anything volatile; not a single one has concerns,” he said.

Sir John said this was in sharp contrast to last year’s IGCSE results day, when many schools were very concerned about falling results after the national pass rate at grade C or above dropped from 64.1 per cent to 63.2 per cent as the number of entries for the qualification rose by two-thirds.

This year the pass rate rose to 64.6 per cent.

‘Last year was volatile’

“Nearly all are saying the board appears to have addressed the issues from last year,” Sir John told TES. “Last year was the volatile, irrational one and this year it seems to be back to normality.”

He said one of Pixl’s member schools had seen the proportion of pupils gaining a C or above in the qualification rise by 29 percentage points compared to last year. “Last year they were beside themselves [about the results],” he said. “This year they’ve gone up and this is obviously encouraging.”

Sir John said he had spoken to about 25 schools that had received results yesterday. He said, however, that because schools tended to be quicker at sharing good news than bad news, it was possible that other schools that he had not heard from were disappointed with their results.

Asked why grades had risen this year, a spokeswoman for CIE said: “The students who sat IGCSE English language this year are different individuals from those who sat it last year.

“In addition, the list of schools making entries this year has slightly changed. It is to be expected that the percentage of students getting different grades will vary a little each year. We have maintained the standard of the examination.”

Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow TES on Twitter and like TES on Facebook