GCSE results will be available online this summer

[6Foot2]

Link: GCSE results will be available online this summer - BBC News

 

Quote

GCSE students across England will be able to view their exams results on their phones for the first time in August.

 

An "education record" app, trialled with 95,000 pupils in Manchester and the West Midlands last summer, will initially download the results - and also allow Year 11 students to then store a digital record of those results for future use, such as when applying for jobs or further education.

 

However students will still be encouraged to go into school on results day to receive "advice or support", headteachers say...

 

[TechMonkey]

So are we placing bets on the system going down within a minute?

[pete]

"No student should have to rifle through drawers looking for a crumpled certificate when they're preparing for a job interview," Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said.

"This app will give young people instant access to their results whenever they need them while freeing up teachers and college staff from unnecessary paperwork."

 

That's Jacqui "ignore my husband's taxpayer-funded pr0n purchases, why not make everyone get an ID card and store their DNA perpetually just in case" Smith.

 

Better a drawer than a half-baked government national ID project masquerading as a benefit to schools and students that will very likely fail when needed.

 

[hardtailstar]

""No student should have to rifle through drawers looking for a crumpled certificate when they're preparing for a job interview," Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said."

 

I dont think I have ever given my certificates to a job interview, not even when I was looking for my first job.

[sigma]

The first person ever to ask to see my "GCE" certificates expected me to find them some 40 years later.   

[jthompson]

On first seeing this news story, the first thing I thought of was how this might mean fewer students coming into school on results days to discuss their results with teachers. A 3-hour delay (releasing them in this app at 11am as opposed to opening envelopes in school at 8am) doesn't seem like very long to me.

 

An official centralised repository for everyone to be able to retrieve their certificates in years to come seems like a sensible idea to me, though, assuming that it can be linked to a gov.uk account down the line.

Edited January 9 by jthompson

[Rob_D]

2 minutes ago, jthompson said:

On first seeing this news story, the first thing I thought of was how this might mean fewer students coming into school on results days to discuss their results with teachers. A 3-hour delay (releasing them in this app at 11am as opposed to opening envelopes in school at 8am) doesn't seem like very long to me.

We don't normally open the doors for GCSE results collection until about 10:30, so I could this effecting us more than a school that allows collection first thing. I'm sure the school will be looking at if they can block the results going to students for longer.

 

 

[pete]

Most of the students coming in for discussion (vs just collecting and celebrating) are of the "Help, I didn't get what I needed" or "I did better than expected, can I change my Y12 options?"

 

We open the doors at 08:00 and most results have been collected by 11:00, with the occasional straggler in the afternoon.

[Rob_D]

12 minutes ago, pete said:

Most of the students coming in for discussion (vs just collecting and celebrating) are of the "Help, I didn't get what I needed" or "I did better than expected, can I change my Y12 options?"

Do you have a 6th Form? We're pretty much the opposite, but we don't have a 6th form so I guess a lot of that conversation is going to be had with the collage rather than us.

[pete]

^ One of our schools does, but even if a student's leaving our schools for elsewhere (uni/college/apprenticeship), the pastoral teams do a fair amount of heavy lifting to make sure the student has some form of acceptable next step.

[AlistairB1983]

A centralised repository of results would not be a bad thing going forwards.

 

However, as far as our school is concerned, it will be literally useless for results day itself.

 

We open our doors at 8:30. Internal candidates have already been allocated to 'straight into 6th Form' or 'conversations needed' categories the day before so that the latter can have those conversations and be enrolled (if applicable). Meaning we let our external applicants in by around 10:30 ish and are generally full in Year 12 before the 11am time this app would release the results.

 

So we're probably going to end up emailing our external applicants a reminder prior to results day to ignore the app and turn up with paper results as normal, or risk finding there's no space left.

[gaz350b]

Just be aware the DFE seem to have sent an email out this morning to heads.

 

Quote

Dear colleague,

 

Digital Education Record to Support Enrolment in 2026

As you may have seen in the press, the DfE has now launched a national pilot of the Education Record. We are inviting you to participate in the national rollout of education records by ensuring you are in a good place to receive digital records alongside existing enrolment processes. Education records are designed to streamline the educational journey for pupils as they transition from Year 11 to sixth form, Further Education (FE) institutions, or other training providers.

 

Empowering pupils with the education records

Education records provide pupils with all their essential educational information in one place, supporting application and enrolment to post-16 education settings.

The education record will be available to all secondary schools and pupils on an optional basis this year. We hope for a wide take up which will support you in readying datasets at enrolment.

 

Data included to help with enrolment 

The DfE creates education records for all learners using information previously provided by schools and awarding organisations (exam bodies).

Learners will have their record on their phone and can digitally share information, including: 

• Unique Learner Number (ULN)
• learner name, date of birth, address
• schools attended
• official exam results for qualifications, like GCSEs
• learner support needs 

 

How it works

You can connect your Management Information System (MIS) to the education record service if your MIS vendor has set up the integration. There are a number of integration patterns available. This can enable learners to share their record as part of the application process or at enrolment. 

If your MIS vendor hasn’t set up an integration for education records, you can still collect the information from learners on enrolment days by asking them to show their record to you in person. 

 

What you need to do

Firstly, you can ask your MIS vendor to set up the integration for education records. Read our guidance to learn more on how to integrate with the education records service.

Use our templates to tell learners how they can use their record and what they can do with their record after sharing. 

If you’d like to help us improve the education records process for FE Providers please feed back

 

Webinars

We will also be holding webinars to provide further information on Education Records and how they can be integrated into your enrolment processes.

If you’d like to sign-up for a webinar or you have a question for us about education records please email *****

We look forward to working with you on these exciting developments and reducing the administrative burden in the education sector. 

 

[pete]

https://issue-education-record.education.gov.uk/

Issue education records to your pupils

Select pupils individually from the pupil list or create groups to divide up your year 11 pupils.

Each pupil must have the DfE education record app downloaded on their mobile device from the Apple or Android app stores.

Issuing takes around 5 minutes per pupil and education records are already populated by the DfE. Each pupil must be sat with you so that you can:

• generate a QR code for the pupil to scan to get their education record
• vouch for the identity of each pupil so they are issued the correct education record

 

(my bolding)

 

With ~250 kids that's ~21hrs plus faffing and breaks.

[gaz350b]

We have been working out how best to do this this morning and come to the conclusion that it might be that this is something a form teacher might have to do.

I've also had a look at the account recovery process and its tied to your mobile telephone! so many issues with this....

[jthompson]

Urgh. Onboarding via QR only by the looks of that. I'd hope that we could mail merge invitation links to students' school email addresses and have that satisfy the 'vouching for their identity' side of things, and not have to involve pointing a camera at another screen, which feels... janky.

 

Edit:
Maybe some sort of Selenium script to run overnight, harvesting QR codes and naming them per student? Mail merge that to students and/or parents?

Edited January 12 by jthompson

[gaz350b]

I don't think its something you can "bodge" its up there with the passport photo verification process in the DfE's eyes.

[jthompson]

10 minutes ago, gaz350b said:

I don't think its something you can "bodge" its up there with the passport photo verification process in the DfE's eyes.

Spoilsport 🙂

[DrBeaker]

4 hours ago, pete said:

https://issue-education-record.education.gov.uk/

Issue education records to your pupils

Select pupils individually from the pupil list or create groups to divide up your year 11 pupils.

Each pupil must have the DfE education record app downloaded on their mobile device from the Apple or Android app stores.

Issuing takes around 5 minutes per pupil and education records are already populated by the DfE. Each pupil must be sat with you so that you can:

• generate a QR code for the pupil to scan to get their education record
• vouch for the identity of each pupil so they are issued the correct education record

 

(my bolding)

 

With ~250 kids that's ~21hrs plus faffing and breaks.

 

 

"...downloaded on their mobile device from the Apple or Android app stores.

Issuing takes around 5 minutes per pupil and education records are already populated by the DfE. Each pupil must be sat with you so that you can:..."

 

Both of those are contrary to most schools Student Mobile Phone policies  😂

 

 

[AlistairB1983]

17 hours ago, DrBeaker said:

 

 

"...downloaded on their mobile device from the Apple or Android app stores.

Issuing takes around 5 minutes per pupil and education records are already populated by the DfE. Each pupil must be sat with you so that you can:..."

 

Both of those are contrary to most schools Student Mobile Phone policies  😂

 

 

Maybe the DfE are suggesting staff meet students outside of work hours to go through this?

 

Exactly as every safeguarding presentation has always told us to do ... 🤣

[Spookyville]

Silly question and suspect not required but is parental consent required for this endeavor?

[1an]

Has anyone started doing this at their schools? How has it been going?

[3s-gtech]

On 26/01/2026 at 15:58, Spookyville said:

Silly question and suspect not required but is parental consent required for this endeavor?

Very much doubt it, with how the digital age of consent is 13.

 

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/childrens-information/children-and-the-uk-gdpr/what-are-the-rules-about-an-iss-and-consent/

[FN-GM]

On 27/01/2026 at 02:28, Spookyville said:

Silly question and suspect not required but is parental consent required for this endeavor?

 

At that age I was working in another schools IT department.

[Fazza]

Sometimes a technical solution is not always the best solution.

 

When you come in person to get your results there are members of staff around looking for both happy and unhappy faces and if they see an unhappy face they can reassure the students that it's not the end of the world as there are always options!

 

If you get your results in your bedroom on an App, nobody will see that potentially unhappy face and you may spend several days being unhappy with no one to guide you in person to the next best route for you to take whether that be 6th Form, College, University, an Apprenticeship or straight in to employment - if you're picking your results up at your School then the staff have that opportunity to help guide you in the right direction.

[NegativeKillDeath]

Does anyone know if the student requires internet connectivity at the point of scanning the QR code? I would presume it has to get the records at some p[point but will it cache the scanned QR until connectivity is there? Our school is in an awful mobile signal dead spot and we don't allow students to connect to the WiFi.