Independent girls’ schools are downplaying the importance of the new GCSE grade 9 to parents and pupils, as they seek to preserve students’ mental health.

Caroline Jordan, president of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA) and head of Headington School for girls in Oxford, said she would not be using 9s when sharing target grades with parents and pupils.  

A number of independent girls’ schools are also doing the same, she added. 

At the GSA annual conference next week, Ms Jordan will say she is concerned that the shift to numerical grades will place additional pressure on “pupils with a tendency towards perfectionism”.

Prior to the event, she told TES: “We don’t want to put girls under too much pressure. We want to make sure that we are not making life even more difficult for young people.

“I think girls naturally err on the side of trying to do everything to the best of their ability, but we need to manage it so that 9 shouldn’t be the perfect score.”

From next summer, A* to G grades at GCSE will be gradually replaced by grades 9 to 1. Under the reforms, just 20 per cent of those who would have achieved A or A* under the existing system will be awarded a grade 9.

In her speech on Monday, she will tell headteachers that many schools are already spending “significant time” telling aspirational parents that only the brightest of the bright will achieve grade 9 and that the “days of all bright pupils getting 10 A*s are over”.

“We have been talking to the cohort of parents about this quite tortuously difficult concept,” Ms Jordan told TES. “The 9 is the icing on the cake. It’s a marker of exceptional ability in a subject. The girls won’t get all 9s now, and nor should they.”

Ms Jordan will say next week: “A caring, supportive environment goes hand in hand with good results and I fear this will become ever more apparent as the pressure to achieve that elusive grade 9 begins to grip GCSE students everywhere.”