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📣 UPDATE: The latest KS2 attainment data has now been added to Schools Like Yours. Our free Schools Like Yours tool is designed to help you benchmark your school against a group of similar schools, where you get to choose how similar is defined. vist.ly/4i9mj

Predicted grades match actual results for less than half of KS4 students, but average grades match results ‘quite closely’ across subject cohorts, @fftedudatalab.bsky.social analysis shows

Are predicted grades accurate? This wonderful blog from @fftedudatalab.bsky.social explores the question, and my takehome is that *on average* they might be, but for an individual student it's pretty much guesswork. Well worth a read. ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2025/12/pred...

NEW POST: Prediction accuracy at Key Stage 4 Using predicted grades and results submitted by 740 schools, we explore differences between predicted and actual grades, including variations by subject. vist.ly/4hxx7

FFT Attendance Tracker is now updated with the latest school and national weekly attendance data up to Friday 05 December 2025. View your school's attendance. 🔍 👇 vist.ly/4hspa #attendancematters #education

Finally, this really fascinating look at how one minor wording change really messed up PISA data by John Jerrim at @fftedudatalab.bsky.social. ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2025/12/why-...

Attainment Through a Contextual Lens 🔍 Our new Contextualised Attainment report in Aspire helps you interpret attainment data with context — providing more meaningful insight. Explore deeper analysis when national benchmarks aren’t available. 🔗 Read more in our latest blog: vist.ly/4hbmz

Our very own Natasha Plaister is a guest on the latest episode of the They Behave For Me podcast - with hosts @adamboxereducation.bsky.social and @amymayforrester.bsky.social. Tune in for chat about all things Datalab, including attainment gaps, the impact of COVID and KS5 subject choice.

NEW POST: Exploring the relationship between Year 11 absence and GCSE results We explore how much of a relationship exists between absence in Year 11 and Key Stage 4 attainment once absence in Year 10 has been accounted for. vist.ly/4gzuc

NEW POST: Why one word can break your research – and why AI won’t help. A cautionary tale from PISA John Jerrim looks at how one small change in wording has big implications for anyone using PISA to understand unexcused absences from school. ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2025/12/why-...

This article's a mess - largely because comms around the funding change has been a mess Allocation of the educational component of SEND funding is the ultimate responsibility of the DfE, and always has been Thread (apologies in advance for the 'stop getting Bond wrong!' energy)

Join more than 9,000 fellow teachers, education professionals and policymakers who receive our blogposts by email, as soon as they come out. vist.ly/4fxj4

NEW POST: Contextualising attainment without Key Stage 2 baselines We talk you through some new measures in FFT Aspire, designed to make sense of Key Stage 4 attainment in the absence of Key Stage 2 data. vist.ly/4ffsp

FFT Attendance Tracker is now updated with the latest school and national weekly attendance data up to Friday 14 November 2025. View your school's attendance. 🔍 👇 vist.ly/4exzg #attendancematters #education

NEW POST: Who might take the new V-Levels? We look at the routes students are currently taking through post-16 education and what this can tell us about the students who might take V-Levels in the future. vist.ly/4f5g2

NEW POST: Why designing the Year 8 diagnostic maths test might be harder than you think We explore the technical and design challenges of creating genuinely useful diagnostic tests, based on @nuffieldfoundation.org funded research. vist.ly/4ey4q

❗️ Proposed changes to league tables will make 'little difference' to the progress 8 scores of most schools, but will likely affect entries, with just 65% of current students filling all slots on the reformed measures, @fftedudatalab.bsky.social analysis suggests schoolsweek.co.uk/progress-8-a...

NEW POST: What difference will the proposed changes to Attainment 8 and Progress 8 make? The proposed new method of calculating Attainment 8 will not affect schools' Progress 8 scores greatly but will shift the incentives to enter particular subjects. vist.ly/4esnb

There is no sign of "stubbornly high" absence levels coming down from last year's levels according to new analysis from the start of the 2025-26 year by @fftedudatalab.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/new...

NEW POST: How much does KS2 maths attainment vary by national curriculum area? We bring you highlights from new research funded by @nuffieldfoundation.org into KS2 maths sub-domain scores - and whether those scores are genuinely useful to schools. ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2025/11/how-...

NEW POST: Pupil absence at the start of Autumn Term 2025 We bring you the latest insights from FFT Attendance Tracker, including overall absence and persistent absence figures for the first Autumn half-term. vist.ly/4e6xh

NEW POST: The inverse intervention law and education, health and care plans Disadvantaged pupils resident in less deprived local authorities are more likely to have an EHCP than disadvantaged pupils resident in more deprived local authorities. vist.ly/4dx2s

FFT Attendance Tracker is now updated with the latest school and national weekly attendance data up to Friday 7 November 2025. View your school's attendance. 🔍 👇 vist.ly/4dskc #attendancematters #education

Great article from Peter Urwin on the challenges of getting NEET young people into education/training/work pathways that make sense. England’s plans to get more young people working or studying don’t go far enough – employment expert theconversation.com/englands-pla...

The number of 16 to 24-year-olds in England who are not in education, employment or training (Neet) currently stands at nearly one million. The government set out a range of initiatives to help them in their recent white paper. But do they go far enough? theconversation.com/englands-pla...

NEW REPORT: Modelling and reforming school choice By Ellen Greaves, @estellecantillon.bsky.social, @mariagraziacavallo.bsky.social and me. Blog economics.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2025/11/06/a... Policy briefing www.bristol.ac.uk/media-librar... #EconSky #EduSky 1/9

🧵 The curriculum and assessment review has been published – here, @cerysturner.bsky.social rounds up the main recommendations, including scrapping the EBacc and making triple science accessible to all at GCSE (1/3)

Breaking: The government is proposing sweeping reforms to progress 8, the main league table measure for secondary schools, in a bid to boost arts take-up – and will ditch the EBacc from this academic year https://schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-ignores-francis-review-and-proposes-sweeping-progress-8-reform/

The government will introduce a new national curriculum from 2028, scrap the EBacc league table measure, make citizenship compulsory in primary schools and force all secondaries to offer triple science GCSE https://schoolsweek.co.uk/new-curriculum-to-be-introduced-in-2028-as-review-published/

NEW: What will it take to meet the government’s ambition for 90% of pupils to achieve the expected standard in Year 1 phonics? 80% of pupils currently achieve the phonics standard by the end of Year 1. We look at how challenging it will be to reach 90%. vist.ly/4csjb

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NEW: Has gender balance in A-Level physics improved? This summer, 24% of those entering A-Level physics exams were female. Physics still has the second lowest percentage of female entrants of all A-Levels. - but that's the highest percentage for at least the last twenty years. vist.ly/4bft7

One platform. One experience. For one consistent approach. #AspirePupilTracking for Secondary Schools makes it easy for teachers to get the insights they need — fast. Hear what schools have to say: 🔗 vist.ly/4baj8

Read the full story on the White Paper delay here ⬇️

NEW POST: Making sense of school performance data in 2025 This year's published secondary school performance data shows why Progress 8 (or something like it) is needed, despite its flaws. vist.ly/4amsj

Our Schools Like Yours site has now been updated with the latest Key Stage 4 attainment data. 🔗 vist.ly/4amnv

I saw reports on this yesterday but none of them mentioned what to me is the *key* point on the Yr 8 tests. It will look at “reading fluency and comprehension.” I think reading fluency has been neglected so quite excited / interested to see it included here. #EduSky www.gov.uk/government/n...

📍 We’re exhibiting at the CST Annual Conference 2025 Flourishing! Stop by our stand to see how #AspirePupilTracking helps schools & trusts make well informed decisions with instant insights, seamless MIS integration & powerful progress tracking. 🙋📊 #CSTConf25 #MATs

Severe pupil absence is a growing problem but it is not as bad as official DfE data suggests, according to an @fftedudatalab.bsky.social study

📖 New Working Paper "Measuring systematic gaps in teacher judgement: A new approach" 😷 We use the Covid-19 induced cancellation of exams, where teachers assigned student grades & rankings within grade econpapers.repec.org/paper/uclcep... @opmc1.bsky.social @gillwyness.bsky.social Rich Murphy

NEW: How many pupils really are severely absent? Is it right to say that there were over 170 thousand children who were severely absent in 2023/24? vist.ly/4acg9

NEW: What will be the impact of the Curriculum and Assessment Review on subject take-up at KS4? With the publication of the Curriculum and Assessment Review imminent, we look at the extent to which schools offer different subjects at KS4 and how entry patterns have been changing vist.ly/49tex

Want to stay up-to-date with the latest research from Datalab? Sign up to our mailing list here. buff.ly/4gJCvGv

FFT Attendance Tracker is now updated with the latest school and national weekly attendance data up to Friday 3 October 2025. View your school's attendance. 🔍 👇 vist.ly/49k5s #attendancematters #education

Join our free discovery webinar next week to find out how schools are transforming #phonics outcomes with FFT. ✅ Explore Success for All Phonics ✅ See our suite of included resources ✅ Learn how we support assessment Sign up 👇 Wed 8 Oct (12:00) ➡️ vist.ly/4882g

A new @fftedu.bsky.social report outlines why early reading work is key to spotting and supporting pupils with SEND to ensure they do not fall behind at the start of their school journey

What about white working-class girls? The attainment of disadvantaged white girls isn’t much better than for the boys, yet the struggles they are facing are being overlooked, school leaders warn

Interested in our research? Sign up to our mailing list to receive blogposts and reports as they come out. vist.ly/47x2v