A few details of the new GCSE marking structure people in secondary teaching jobs will be working with have been announced.

Ofqual has launched a new top-level GCSE grade which will be awarded to the 20,000 students who gain the highest marks in each year. The exam regulator has begun a consultation on the grading system that will rank from nine at the top down to one for the lowest exam scores.

GCSEs will be marked to the new structure from 2017 and Glenys Stacey from the watchdog believes the incoming structure will improve the calibration of exams and aim to set higher standards.

Grade nine will be awarded to half the pupils who now achieving an A* and under the new system, an A grade would equate to a grade seven, while the current C grade - widely viewed as the pass level - would become a grade four.

Furthermore, there will be more links to the Pisa tests, which the government sees as an influential measure for international comparisons. Grade five will be seen as the international standard, so it is still unclear as yet to whether grade four or five will be used to establish the new expected level in English schools in the future.

People in secondary teaching jobs will need to know soon, as they begin teaching the new system from the start of the next academic year.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association for School and College Leaders, said: "Until it is made clear to teachers what students need to know in order to achieve a grade and they have detailed specifications and sample questions, they will not be able to plan for these examinations."

Ms Stacey said that Ofqual will still listen to views on marking scheme and they were "not a done deal".

As somebody who will need to work day in, day out with this system, what do you think of these changes?