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

Want to stay up-to-date with the latest research from Datalab? Sign up to our mailing list here. vist.ly/4bv2g

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

FFT Attendance Tracker is now updated with the latest school and national weekly attendance data up to Friday 19 September 2025. View your school's attendance. 🔍 👇 vist.ly/47thm #attendancematters #education

NEW POST: Why does England lose so many promising young mathematicians from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds? A look at the leaky pipeline for pupils who show potential in maths at age eleven but don't go on to pursue the subject. vist.ly/47d5f

🎓Want to learn about the Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (LEO) dataset, a state-of-the-art linked education-labour+more resource? We're running online and in-person courses: 🦁 30 Sep-1 Oct (AM, online) tinyurl.com/leo-online 🦁 7 Oct (in-person): Practical Intro to LEO tinyurl.com/leo-practical

Interested in using the National Pupil Database (NPD) in your research but don't know where to start? Or just want to learn more about this great resource? Sign up for our online course on the NPD next Tues and Weds (23-24 Sept) supported by ADR UK: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cepeo-adru...

The doors of this year's ADR UK conference are open and it's wonderful to see delegates coming in already for today's workshops! Do have a browse through the incredible array of abstracts now published in IJPDS ijpds.org/issue/view/43 Be sure to follow @adruk2025.bsky.social for conference updates

Do you know any Year 6 parents or carers applying for a secondary school place next month? My next free webinar on how to make sense of all the online data about school performance is on Wednesday 24th September at 7:45pm - please help spread the word, thanks! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/secrets-of...

NEW POST: How many pupils resit English and maths? It is a requirement that pupils who do not achieve grade 4 in English (or maths) at GCSE continue to study English (or maths) post-16. But how many pupils actually enter a qualification in maths or English post-16? vist.ly/469sh

NEW POST: Is the start of term critical for tackling persistent absence? In our latest post, we find that absence at the start of term is no more predictive of persistent absence than at any other time of year. vist.ly/46596

Our blogposts and reports are available by email. Know someone who’d be interested? buff.ly/4gJCvGv

NEW POST: The pupils who leave school without passes in GCSE English and mathematics Post-COVID there has been a rise in the percentage of pupils leaving school without a pass (9-1) in GCSE English and maths. Most of these pupils were not entered for examinations. vist.ly/45yw9

NEW POST: DfE will need to take account of age when comparing schools’ rates of pupils achieving a good level of development We look at some of the things DfE should consider when providing schools with comparative analysis of pupils reaching a good level of development. vist.ly/45k4m

It is possible to close the attainment gap for white, working-class pupils – we need only look to Steubenville, Ohio, to find out how, writes Mike Fischer of @fftedu.bsky.social

NEW POST: An early look at pupils who did not achieve the basics last year Based on data from 1,500 secondary schools, we take an early look at the pupils who did not achieve a standard pass in English and maths GCSE. vist.ly/45fpc

Despite the heroic efforts of teachers across England, over 700,000 students are navigating some of their most critical years in education without access to specialist physics teaching. 🔗 Read our new report: iop.org/3RS #RetainRecruitRetrain (1/2)

NEW POST: Usage of new attendance codes: An update New statutory guidance for schools in relation to recording and managing attendance (and absence) came into effect in September last year. We take a look at the use of codes to record absences in attendance registers. vist.ly/45bf9

NEW POST: Exclusions and suspensions in 2024/25 An update to our regular series using attendance data to gauge the rate of exclusion and suspension in the whole of the 2024/25 academic year. vist.ly/458hd

NEW POST: Calculating a Key Stage 4 progress measure using CAT4 in place of Key Stage 2 There will be no official Progress 8 measures this year due to the cancellation of KS2 tests in 2020. We have produced an alternative measure using CAT4 scores as a baseline. vist.ly/44q32

Want to receive the latest research from Datalab? Sign up to receive all our blogposts and reports as they come out. vist.ly/44gc2

Catching up on the news about #GCSEresultsday? Here's our take: 🔸 Grades are up very slightly from last year 🔸 The gender gap in grading is closing 🔸 Entries to triple science are down and double up 🔸 Re-take entries are up, but grades remain low vist.ly/4487m

Our analysis of GCSE results day 2025 is now out. 🔸 Grades are up very slightly from last year 🔸 The gender gap in grading is closing 🔸 Entries to triple science are down and double up 🔸 Re-take entries are up, but grades remain low vist.ly/445pr

📉 Top GCSEs grade are up slightly this year overall, but some subjects saw higher increases than others. The % achieving 9-7 increased by 2 percentage points in biology and chemistry and 1 in physics. French and German were also up by 2 pp. 🔗 vist.ly/445bs

📈 GCSE entries from 16-year-olds in biology, chemistry and physics fell by 6% this year. Double science entries are up 2%. Entries in History and German also fell by 6%, while entries in music and statistics increased for a second successive year. 🔗 vist.ly/44566

📊 The gender gap in GCSE grades is closing. Although female pupils are still more likely to achieve a top grade, the gender gap at grade 7 has fallen every year since 2021, when it stood at a record high of nine percentage points. 🔗 vist.ly/444si

🚨 FFT’s KS4 Early Results Service is OPEN! 🚨 Upload your GCSE & Vocational results for instant analysis alongside 2024 DfE national data — with statistical significance & percentile ranks. 📊 Get data to us by 10am to make sure you’re in the first cut of national data! #GCSEResults #EduData

📢 NEW POST: GCSE results 2025 - The main trends in grades and entries Our round-up of everything you need to know about this year's GCSE results. vist.ly/443yv