Data set from Key stage 4 performance

KS4 national characteristics data

Not the latest data

Published 20 October 2022

Last updated 20 October 2022

National level headline entry and attainment measures broken down by year, detailed school type, gender, major and minor ethnicity, free school meal eligibility, special educational need status and description, primary need, disadvantaged status, first language, school admission type and school religious denomination.

Data set details

Theme: School and college outcomes and performance
Publication: Key stage 4 performance
Release: Academic year 2021/22
Release type
Geographic levels: National
Indicators: Average Attainment 8 score of all pupils
Average EBacc APS score per pupil
Average Progress 8 score of all pupils
Filters: All pupils with a primary need (from 2014/15 onwards this consisted of pupils flagged as SEN with a statement, EHC plan, SEN support, school action or school action plus)
Basis for admission into the school e.g. non-selective schools in other areas, selective schools
Disadvantaged status
Time period: 2018/19 to 2021/22

Data set preview

Table showing first 5 rows, from underlying data
time_period	time_identifier	geographic_level	country_code	country_name	version	school_characteristic	breakdown	characteristic_gender	characteristic_ethnic_major	characteristic_ethnic_minor	characteristic_free_school_meals	characteristic_sen_status	characteristic_primary_need	characteristic_all_primary_need	characteristic_sen_description	characteristic_disadvantage	characteristic_first_language	characteristic_admission_type	characteristic_religious_denomination	t_schools	t_pupils	t_att8	avg_att8	t_entbasics	pt_entbasics	t_l2basics_95	pt_l2basics_95	t_l2basics_94	pt_l2basics_94	t_ebacc_e_ptq_ee	pt_ebacc_e_ptq_ee	t_ebacc_95	pt_ebacc_95	t_ebacc_94	pt_ebacc_94	t_ebaccaps	avg_ebaccaps	t_inp8calc	t_p8score	avg_p8score	p8score_CI_low	p8score_CI_upp
202122	Academic year	National	E92000001	England	Revised	State-funded mainstream	Ethnic major	Boys	Chinese	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	770	1210	78633.88	65	1199	99.1	939	77.6	1055	87.2	717	59.3	510	42.1	594	49.1	7322.78	6.05	934	823.908	0.88	0.79	0.97
202122	Academic year	National	E92000001	England	Revised	State-funded special schools	Ethnic major	Boys	Chinese	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	28	29	12	0.4	1	3.4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.33	0.05	25	-49.657	-1.99	-2.54	-1.43
202122	Academic year	National	E92000001	England	Revised	Studio Schools	Ethnic major	Boys	Chinese	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	2	2	97	48.5	2	100	1	50	1	50	1	50	0	0	0	0	8.67	4.34	1	1.577	1.58	-1.18	4.34
202122	Academic year	National	E92000001	England	Revised	University Technical Colleges (UTCs)	Ethnic major	Boys	Chinese	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	5	5	284.5	56.9	5	100	3	60	3	60	0	0	0	0	0	0	22.33	4.47	4	0.913	0.23	-1.15	1.61
202122	Academic year	National	E92000001	England	Revised	All state-funded	Free school meals	Boys	Mixed	Any other mixed background	FSM	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	Total	1057	1639	62114.5	37.9	1500	91.5	522	31.8	843	51.4	454	27.7	155	9.5	223	13.6	5363.42	3.27	1482	-783.061	-0.53	-0.6	-0.46

Variables in this data set

Table showing first 5 of 36 variables
Variable name	Variable description
avg_att8	Average Attainment 8 score of all pupils
avg_ebaccaps	Average EBacc APS score per pupil
avg_p8score	Average Progress 8 score of all pupils
characteristic_admission_type	Basis for admission into the school e.g. non-selective schools in other areas, selective schools
characteristic_all_primary_need	Primary need grouping

Footnotes

English includes 'pupils whose first language is English’ includes 'not known but believed to be English'.
Other than English includes ‘pupils whose first language is other than English’ includes 'not known but believed to be other than English'.
Statement/EHC plan indicates whether a pupil a pupil has a statement of SEN or an education, health and care (EHC) plan when a formal assessment has been made.
Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) was added as a new type of need in 2014/15; the previous type of need Behaviour, Emotional and Social Difficulties has been removed although it is not expected that SEMH will be a direct replacement.
SEN support indicates whether a pupil has extra or different help given from that provided as part of the school’s usual curriculum. The class teacher and SEN coordinator (SENCO) may receive advice or support from outside specialists. This category replaces the former ‘school action’ and ‘school action plus’ categories.
A Progress 8 score of 1.0 means pupils in the group make on average approximately a grade more progress than the national average; a score of -0.5 means they make on average approximately half a grade less progress than average. Progress 8 scores should be interpreted alongside the associated confidence intervals. If the lower bound of the confidence interval is greater than zero, it can be interpreted as meaning that the group achieves greater than average progress compared to pupils in mainstream schools nationally and that this is statistically significant. If the upper bound is negative, this means that the group achieves lower than average progress compared to pupils in mainstream schools nationally and that this is statistically significant.
In 2020 and 2021, all GCSEs in England have been reformed and use the new 9 to 1 grading system (rather than A*-G). Year on year comparisons will be limited until these qualifications are consistently included from 2020 onwards. However, results for 2020 and 2021 are not comparable with earlier years due to the cancellation of exams (due to COVID-19) and the changes to the way GCSE grades were awarded and results for 2022 are not comparable with previous years due to the changes relating to grading assessments.
'Any SEN' indicates whether a pupil has learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age. This includes 'SEN with a statement 'EHC plan' or 'SEN support'.
c = a cell that has been suppressed due to low number of pupils. Suppression was applied where deemed necessary for all data up to 2018/19. For 2019/20, DfE suppression policy changed. For 2020 and 2021 results where a geographical area contains only one school (for example Isles of Scilly) the data for that area has been suppressed. This is in line with the announcement that school level data would not be published using either summer 2020 or summer 2021 exam grades awarded. Data is not being supressed in 2022 at local authority or national level.
State-funded special schools include local authority maintained special schools, academy sponsor led special schools, academy special schools and special free schools. They exclude independent special schools and non-maintained special schools.
Sub totals may not sum to the grand total due to a small number of pupils with missing information e.g. for FSM, SEN, EAL and those where ethnicity is not recorded.
Local authority (LA) maintained mainstream schools include community schools, voluntary aided schools, voluntary controlled schools and foundation schools. Schools fully or partially under local authority control that are state-funded, mainly by the Dedicated Schools Grant.
Academies and free schools include sponsored academies, converter academies, free schools studio schools and university technical colleges (UTCs).
Non selective schools in highly selective areas: Includes all non-selective schools in local authorities with a high level of selection (where 25% or more of state-funded secondary places are in state-funded selective schools). These local authorities are Bexley, Buckinghamshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Medway, Slough, Southend-on-Sea, Sutton, Torbay, Trafford and Wirral.
Most secondary schools educate pupils from year 7 (age 11 to 12) to year 11 (age 15 to 16). Some schools and colleges, such as university technical colleges (UTCs), studio schools or further education colleges with key stage 4 provision, differ in their age range and specialisms and this should be borne in mind when reviewing the performance tables data for these types of provision. For example, Progress 8 measures the progress made by pupils from the end of year 6 (end of primary school) through to the end of year 11, covering a period of five years. In UTCs, studio schools and some other academies, pupils typically start in year 10, rather than in year 7 as is the case for most secondary schools. This means that, by the end of year 11, pupils in these schools will have typically attended that school for only 2 years, compared to 5 years for pupils in most secondary schools. As a result, the Progress 8 data for these schools is not directly comparable with the Progress 8 data for other schools. UTCs, studio schools and some FE colleges with KS4 provision provide a specialist technical and professional education. The government’s position is that it is not appropriate to expect the same rates of EBacc entry from these types of provision and that each school should decide on a case by case basis whether its specialist curriculum is compatible with the full EBacc.
Disadvantaged all other includes pupils for whom free school meal eligibility, Special Educational Needs status (SEN provision) or SEN primary need could not be determined.
From 2014/15, disadvantaged pupils include pupils known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM) in any spring, autumn, summer, alternative provision or pupil referral unit census from year 6 to year 11 or are looked after children for at least one day or are adopted from care. For 2013/14 and earlier years, they include pupils known to be eligible for FSM in any spring, autumn, summer, alternative provision or pupil referral unit census from year 6 to year 11 or are looked after children.
Selective schools admit pupils wholly or mainly with reference to ability. These schools are formally designated as grammar schools.
In 2020 and 2021 Progress 8 data was not published because of the cancellation of GCSE exams (due to COVID-19). Calculating Progress 8 has an element of modelling (estimating the average Attainment 8 score for pupils with similar prior attainment) and with the lack of exam data, the Progress 8 measure is not meaningful as a measure of Progress for 2021. Progress 8 has been reintroduced in 2022.
'No identified SEN' includes pupils whom could not obtained, refused, unclassified or could not be determined.
: = When data is unavailable for other reasons
'Total' includes pupils for whom Free School Meal eligibility (FSM), Special Educational Needs status (SEN provision) or SEN primary need could not be determined. This figure also includes pupils at further education colleges: as FE colleges do not complete the school census, we do not have matched pupil characteristics data of pupils in FE colleges and therefore these pupils are not included in characteristics breakdowns. This means that there are some cases where the individual characteristics breakdowns will not add up to the all pupils figure.
'No SEN' includes pupils whom could not obtained, refused, unclassified or could not be determined.
All State-funded special schools include community special schools, foundation special schools, special sponsored academies, special converter academies and special free schools.
English as an additional language (EAL) unclassified includes pupils whom first language was not obtained, refused or could not be determined.
Non selective schools in other areas: Includes all non-selective schools that are not in highly selective areas, including those in areas with some selection.
Religious character is taken from the GIAS (Get information about schools) website and is the legal designation of each school. Any state-funded mainstream schools who do not have their religious character recorded on the GIAS website are recorded in 'no religious character'. Religious character is taken from GIAS and are given as at 12 September at the start of the academic year, and is the legal designation of each school.
All pupils with a primary need (from 2014/15 onwards this consisted of pupils flagged as SEN with a statement, EHC plan, SEN support).
State-funded mainstream schools include academies, free schools, city technology colleges and further education colleges with provision for 14 to 16 year-olds. They exclude state-funded special schools, independent schools, independent special schools, non-maintained special schools, hospital schools and alternative provision (including pupil referral units, AP free schools and AP academies as well as state-funded AP placements in other institutions). Further education colleges with 14-16 provision are included in the total figure for all state-funded schools but not in the breakdowns by religious character or school admissions; therefore, figures by religious character or school admissions will not add up to the figure for all state-funded mainstream schools.
Following special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms in 2014/15, SEN pupils are categorised as 'SEN with a statement or Education, health and care (EHC) plan' and 'SEN support'. SEN support replaces 'school action' and 'school action plus' (grouped as SEN without a statement up to and including 2013/14) but some pupils remain with these provision types in first year of transition. More detailed information on the reforms can be found at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25
z = When an observation is not applicable
Unclassified includes pupils whom ethnicity was not obtained, refused or could not be determined.
Free school meals (FSM) does not relate to pupils who actually received free school meals but those who are eligible to receive free school meals. Pupils not eligible for free school meals or unclassified pupils are described as ‘All other pupils’.
Since September 2013, general further education (FE) colleges and sixth-form colleges have been able to directly enrol 14- to 16-year-olds. Entries and achievements for these pupils are included in figures as state-funded schools. As FE colleges do not complete the school census, pupils at the end of key stage 4 attending FE colleges are included in the all pupils lines but not in the majority of the characteristics breakdowns. Therefore, there are some cases where the individual characteristics breakdowns will not add up to the all pupils figure. Pupils in FE colleges are included in the free school meals and disadvantaged figures from 2015/16 onwards.
Any science includes Astronomy, Electronics, Environmental Science and Geology.
All state-funded schools include local authority maintained mainstream schools, academies, free schools, city technology colleges, further education colleges with provision for 14 to 16 year-olds and state-funded special schools. They exclude independent schools, independent special schools, non-maintained special schools, hospital schools, pupil referral units and alternative provision. Alternative provision includes academy and free school alternative provision.
A new code was added in 2014/15 for those who are yet to be assessed for type of need. This may include some who have transferred from School Action to SEN support.

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KS4 national characteristics data

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