FFT Education Datalab

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What happened to “opportunity areas”?

1 week ago | ffteducationdatalab.org.uk | Katie Beynon

In October 2016 the then Conservative Government announced that certain parts of the country were to be designated “opportunity areas”. These areas would share an extra £60m in funding, with their schools partnered with those in other parts of the country, and links developed with local businesses in the hope of raising children’s aspirations. There ended up being 12 of these, selected broadly by considering levels of social mobility, attainment and progress, and capacity to improve.
Understanding trends in the study of economics

2 weeks ago | ffteducationdatalab.org.uk | Natasha Plaister

Regular readers will know that here at Datalab we’re always interested in the subject choices that students make. So when the Bank of England approached us about putting together a report taking a deep dive into trends in the study of economics, we jumped at the chance. We looked at trends over the last ten years at GCSE, A-Level and first degree level, focusing in on the school and pupil characteristics that are most – and least – associated with studying economics.
Pupil absence in Autumn and Spring 2024/25

2 weeks ago | ffteducationdatalab.org.uk | Katie Beynon

When we last looked at absence at the end of Autumn Term, we found a slight improvement at secondary compared with the previous Autumn, and little to no change at primary. We did note though, that persistent absence among the youngest pupils, those in Reception and Year 1, seemed to have increased a little. Now that we’ve got data for the whole of Autumn and Spring Terms, we’re going to see whether these patterns held.
How did the gender gap in top GCSE grades change during the pandemic?

3 weeks ago | ffteducationdatalab.org.uk | Natasha Plaister

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that the pandemic brought some disruption to education. Aside from many other things, it led to the cancellation of public exams in 2020 and 2021, and grades being awarded through CAGs and TAGs respectively. And, of course, we saw an increase in top grades at GCSE in both years, as well as in 2022 when grade boundaries were adjusted to avoid too sharp a fall in grading.
The rise of teenage girls feeling unsafe at school

1 month ago | ffteducationdatalab.org.uk | John Jerrim

All children have the right to education. They also have the right to feel safe at school. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case in England – particularly amongst teenage girls. My new academic working paper out today uses data from the TIMSS study to track the emotional engagement of young people before and after the pandemic. It also investigates changes in their engagement between Year 5 and Year 9. The results are stark.
Pathways into low attainment at Key Stage 4

1 month ago | ffteducationdatalab.org.uk | Natasha Plaister |Pupil demographics

Here at Datalab, we’re nothing if not innovative.[1] And so when we heard about some recent work from researchers at the University of Glasgow that uses the new (to us) method of latent class analysis to explore links between attainment, exclusions and attendance in Scotland, we thought we’d see what insights it could offer us into low attaining Key Stage 4 pupils in England. Latent class analysis is a way of identifying groups of people with similar characteristics or behaviour.
Is attending a grammar school bad for your mental health?

Feb 5, 2025 | ffteducationdatalab.org.uk | John Jerrim

Research has shown pupils compare themselves academically to their school peers. For those in grammar schools, this will mean comparing themselves against a disproportionate number of high-achieving pupils. Studies from the US have suggested that this may increase the academic pressure on young people who – in such a high-achieving environment – feel they need to “be the best of the best”.
Splitting the disadvantage gap within and between schools, part two

Jan 16, 2025 | ffteducationdatalab.org.uk | Dave Thomson |Pupil demographics

In the first part of this article, we examined how national gaps in Progress 8 scores between disadvantaged pupils and their peers could be split into two parts, one based on within-school gaps and the other based on between-school gaps. In this second part, we look at how these gaps vary by region. Once again, we use published school-level Key Stage 4 data for 2024. Part one gives details about how we split the Progress 8 gap between and within schools at a national level.
Splitting the disadvantage gap within and between schools, part one

Jan 16, 2025 | ffteducationdatalab.org.uk | Dave Thomson |Pupil demographics

In this article I’m going to examine the extent to which national attainment gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their peers varies within and between schools. In part two I will examine how these vary by region. The “within school” part of the gap refers to the fact that even in the same school disadvantaged pupils tend to achieve lower outcomes than their peers.
Pupil absence in Autumn Term 2024

Jan 15, 2025 | ffteducationdatalab.org.uk | Katie Beynon

When we last looked at absence back in November, we found that there had been little change from the previous year at primary, and a slight reduction at secondary. In this post, we’ll see whether these patterns held for the rest of the term. With a full term of data under our belts, we’ll also take a more detailed look at persistent absence. As usual, data for this post comes from our FFT Attendance Tracker schools – around 6,000 primary and 2,500 secondary schools across England.