FFT Attendance Tracker is now updated with the latest school and national weekly attendance data up to Friday 27 March 2026. View your school's attendance. 🔍 👇 vist.ly/4wkvv #attendancematters #education

FFT Attendance Tracker is now updated with the latest school and national weekly attendance data up to Friday 20 March 2026. View your school's attendance. 🔍 👇 vist.ly/4vwjq #attendancematters #education

NEW: How will qualification entry patterns change as a result of changes to Attainment 8? Expect an increase in entries in creative subjects and fewer entries in geography, history and triple science. vist.ly/4w343

NEW: Exclusions and suspensions in Autumn 2025/26 Early signs for 2025/26 suggest that suspensions are continuing to fall from their 2023/24 peak vist.ly/4vwi8

Early days for the new framework, but based on the outcomes for the first 50 or so secondary schools to be inspected, those with lower-attaining intakes are disproportionately more likely to be deemed as needing attention for achievement

NEW: Outcomes for pupils with low reading attainment at Key Stage 2 Low attainment in Key Stage 2 reading tests does not necessarily lead to poor outcomes at secondary school, but it does increase the chances of poor outcomes. vist.ly/4vezi

FFT Regional Attendance Tracker is updated with the latest national & regional attendance. 📊 View the latest data here 👇 vist.ly/4u2wu #attendance #attendancematters #education

NEW: The education and labour market outcomes of England’s gifted and talented children This post outlines the findings from a new paper looking at England's former Gifted and Talented programme. Who was identified as gifted and talented, and what difference did it make? vist.ly/4us7j

🚨 Last chance to enter our #FFTReadAnywhere World Book Day Challenge! 📚 Share a photo of where reading happens beyond the classroom for a chance to win a £50 book token! Entries close 13 March. All the information you need to enter is below 👇 T&Cs: vist.ly/4uf5u

NEW: Understanding unauthorised absence We look at patterns in unauthorised absence, including the numbers of students missing school for unauthorised reasons very frequently, and the contribution such pupils make to headline absence figures. vist.ly/4uh86

NEW: “Fair banding” schools In collaboration with TES magazine last year, we analysed the characteristics of pupils in schools which used banding tests in their admissions processes. Here we set out our full methodology and findings. vist.ly/4tnuw

NEW: Are DfE right to ditch confidence intervals? DfE are proposing a change to the way they calculate bandings that summarise schools' progress scores. We look at the pros and cons of doing so. vist.ly/4ssyj

Pupils’ special educational needs will be met through a new layered system of support, with education, health and care plans reserved for only the most complex cases Here's what you need to know... https://schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-white-paper-the-key-send-reform-policies/

Big day today - we will finally find out the details of the government’s SEND reforms (following the drip, drip over the last few weeks). Follow @schoolsweek.bsky.social for what you need to know later this morning - and full analysis throughout the week. #SEND #schoolswhitepaper

Schools will get access to a new £1.6bn inclusion fund and a bank of specialists in their local area, the government announced tonight, as part of a £4bn spending plan for SEND reform

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-...