Turn data into direction with #FFTAspirePupilTracking and track progress from KS3-5. 📊 Benchmark: FFT’s 2025 national figures, FFT & CAT4 estimates ↔️ Subject attainment & progress ✅ Results, prior attainment & context Join our #KS5 focused webinar 👇 vist.ly/4q6fc

NEW POST: A-level completion rates We calculate the proportion of A-level students who complete their chosen qualification, and explore how this varies by subject and prior attainment. vist.ly/4qaj4

FFT Attendance Tracker is now updated with the latest school and national weekly attendance data up to Friday 30 January 2026. View your school's attendance. 🔍 👇 vist.ly/4q5s2 #attendancematters #education

FFT Attendance Tracker is now updated with the latest school and national weekly attendance data up to Friday 23 January 2026. View your school's attendance. 🔍 👇 vist.ly/4p7mu #attendancematters #education

Latest blog by @adr-uk.bsky.social on their research fellowships & how our research agenda can support. Karen Powell "...aligning your proposal with these research agendas means your work will address high-priority evidence gaps endorsed by a wide range of stakeholders." More:

Interested in applying for a research fellowship using admin datasets, like the National Pupil Database and LEO? Have a look at this blog for some guidance on how to shape your proposal. vist.ly/4nvpw

🤓The @cepeo-ucl.bsky.social team of data experts is running two admin training courses in February! First, we have an online course for those who wish to learn more about the National Pupil Database Feb 10 and Feb 11 at 9.30am GMT www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cepeo-adru...

7 year after becoming Professor… it’s my inaugural lecture! Improving the life chances of disadvantaged young people: how do we break down barriers to opportunity? Thursday 12 March, 5.15pm Room G06, Roberts Building Torrington Place, London WC1E 7JE Book your place here: bit.ly/life_chances

NEW POST: Pupil absence in Autumn Term 2025/26 A summary of patterns in pupil attendance across Autumn Term this year, including the impact of an unusually early flu season. vist.ly/4mk44

FFT Regional Attendance Tracker is updated with the latest national & regional attendance. 📊 View the latest data here 👇 vist.ly/4mfd3 #attendance #attendancematters #education

A new year reminder we're (@smfthinktank.bsky.social and @suttontrust.bsky.social) looking for case studies of successful relationships between schools and early years provision - that can be a nursery inside of a school, or local providers with strong links ⬇️

Interested in our research? Sign up to our mailing list to receive blogposts and reports as they come out. vist.ly/4izwy

📣 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

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