Background
In the 2025-26 academic year a large MAT commenced a trust subscription to the Elemental music platform, a new teacher-led music curriculum support platform. Elemental provided access to their software and weekly data updates for trust advisors alongside access to real-time dashboards for every Year 11 class.
The roll-out to schools commenced in November 2025, with usage picking up sharply in January 2026.
Does the platform help students improve?
Elemental is targeted at 40% of the GCSE final grade, the part covered by the written paper. We looked at how question volume and question accuracy within Elemental compared to the mock and final marks gained by students in the final GCSE written exam.
The data shows that question volume and accuracy in Elemental both correlate clearly with the final written mark. To give us a clearer idea of whether this is correlation or causation our analysis compares students with similar starting points and tracks their improvement from mock to final exam. This is not a randomised controlled trial, but the patterns are consistent with Elemental making a real difference to students' learning.
1. When students did more questions in Elemental, they improved more
The students in Y11 answered over 230,000 questions in the 2025-26 academic year up to June 6th, the day of the GCSE written paper. Around 3,000 of these were answered in November, the month of the first mock.
The following usage groups were selected to look at the progress from mock to final written exam: 0 use, 1-99 questions answered, 100-299, 300-699 and 700+. We examined improvement rather than merely volume for the reasons stated above.
Every group that used the platform improved their score and the increase was larger for the groups that answered more questions. Students with similar starting points improved more if they answered more questions in the platform, an indicator of a platform effect rather than strength or diligence.
The graph below sets out the picture, with the key improvements as follows:
- Light users (under 100 questions) gained about 2 marks on average
- Regular users (100–699 questions) gained 3–6 marks
- Heavy users (700+ questions) gained about 8 marks
The rate of return on questions answered is around +1 mark in the written paper for every doubling of questions, a rate that is unchanged when comparing students with the same mock mark and within the same school.
The effects found here are notably within school effects rather than between school effects. The differences between schools reflect the powerful impact of teachers and school culture. Elemental exists as a curriculum support platform, here to aid good teaching, and the differences in usage within each cohort are reflected here.
2. Regular use is an insurance against decline
A consistent level of Elemental usage, totalling 300 questions in the period under examination, marks a crossing point at which a decline in attainment becomes unlikely.
Of the students who answered fewer than 300 questions, around one in five dropped 5 or more marks between the February mock and the June exam. Above 300 questions this falls to around one in twenty.
3. Above 100 questions, Elemental accuracy helps predict the final mark
Student average accuracy in Elemental gives valuable information on likely attainment range in the final exam. The accuracy is only a useful indicator after 100 questions. The accuracy of the prediction increases further towards 300 questions, at which point it flattens out.
| Platform accuracy | Students | Avg Grade 4 mark (39/96)+ | Avg Grade 5 mark (44/96)+ | Avg Grade 6 mark (55/96)+ | Avg Grade 7 mark (60/96)+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 40% | 24 | 12% | 4% | 4% | 0% |
| 40–44% | 31 | 39% | 16% | 0% | 0% |
| 45–49% | 46 | 48% | 26% | 11% | 4% |
| 50–54% | 48 | 62% | 38% | 25% | 10% |
| 55–59% | 72 | 79% | 64% | 46% | 29% |
| 60–64% | 63 | 95% | 90% | 71% | 32% |
| 65–69% | 36 | 92% | 89% | 83% | 56% |
| 70%+ | 35 | 97% | 97% | 91% | 77% |
There are some key boundaries to note in this data:
- Above 50% accuracy most students gain a Grade 4. Below it most do not.
- Above 60% accuracy 9 in 10 students gain a Grade 5 or higher.
- Above 70% accuracy 8 in 10 students gain a Grade 7 or better.
4. Accuracy adds valuable information to the mock mark
We looked at the marks gained in their February mock against expected accuracy in Elemental. This demonstrated that accuracy in Elemental is providing useful information to teachers that is not entirely captured in a mock mark.
When a student's accuracy in Elemental was 5%+ higher than expected for their mock mark, they gained an average of 9.5 marks from the February mock to the final exam. If their accuracy was 5%+ lower than expected then they gained only 1 mark. This data shows the platform providing valuable information to teachers months before the final exam.
Here are two examples:
Student A, accuracy ahead of expectation.
February mock: 40/96, typical of a low Grade 4.
The expected platform accuracy for a student gaining 40/96 is 55%. Having completed 300 questions, Student A's accuracy was 62%. This accuracy is more typical of a student gaining a Grade 5/6 and a typical Student A gained 50/96 in the final exam.
Student B, accuracy below expectation.
February mock: 41/96, a secure-looking mark just above the average Grade 4 score.
The expected platform accuracy for a student gaining 41/96 was 55%. Having completed 400 questions, Student B's accuracy is 48%. This accuracy is more typical of a student gaining a 4 and the platform is suggesting that the mock result is shakier than it might appear. A typical Student B gained 42/96.
5. Volume and accuracy are both valuable
The lesson of the data in this case study is work harder and work smarter. The platform adds most value when numbers of questions answered interact with accuracy in answering those questions. Either lever will be useful to teachers in improving their students' grades, as the effects of volume and accuracy are at least partly independent. Teachers should have regard to both in helping the students use their hard work to greatest effect.
For context
Elemental is a curriculum support platform. Teacher quality and school culture have significantly greater impact than platform usage. Nevertheless, the students using the platform most consistently gained enough marks from mock to final to improve their overall outcomes by half a grade.
The following suggestions to teachers lean on this case study.
Five actions for teachers using Elemental
1. Build the weekly habit early. Give students enough runway to ensure that students answer 300 questions between the mock and the final exam. If these 300 questions are answered with an accuracy of 45% or more then the risk of decline reduces significantly.
2. Keep an eye on accuracy. Once a student has reached 100 questions their platform accuracy is a useful indicator of future performance. Use the GCSE Readiness page to check that all of their 100 questions are not simply confirmation that they know the timbral quality of a violin.
3. Pair the mock mark with platform accuracy. Mock marks are a highly important indicator of final mark. When platform accuracy is added, teachers can differentiate between students with the same mark and intervene accordingly.
4. Intervene when volume is high and accuracy is low. Heavy users with accuracy below 50% still mostly miss Grade 4s. These students need the diagnostic and explanatory power of a teacher to help improve their accuracy.
5. Push the top end. High-attaining students improved at least as much per question as anyone else in this case study and the platform's effects are not restricted to intervention groups at the Grade 4 boundary.
Data
This case study looked at patterns across the following data sets:
- Mock 1 written paper marks (November) for 333 students
- Mock 2 written paper marks (February) for 368 students
- GCSE written paper marks (June) for 451 students
- Elemental usage per month per student
- Elemental accuracy per month per student
