This statistical release focuses on the A level results of students at the end of 16-18 study in 2023/24 in schools and colleges in England. This provisional release includes student characteristic breakdowns such as disadvantage status, Special Educational Needs status and ethnicity.
Comparisons are made to revised data for 2022/23, which was the first year the awarding of grades returned to pre-pandemic standards for GCSEs, AS and A levels and vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs).
Due to quality issues in some of the vocational data this provisional release will not include data on outcomes for applied general and tech level qualifications. Complete data for all qualifications will be included in the scheduled update with revised data in February.
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All supporting files from this release are listed for individual download below:
Transition matrices data used for visualising the progress of pupils aged 16 to 18 from key stage 4 (KS4) to key stage 5 (KS5).
Instructions to accompany the transition matrices data
This is the second year where grading has returned to pre-pandemic arrangements, with Ofqual’s approach in 2024 being to maintain 2023 standards.
Statistics in this release for 2023/24 include grades received by students as announced on 15 August 2024. The exam grades have been matched to students to enable student level analyses.
Breakdowns of the A/AS level grades achieved in summer 2024 were previously published on results day by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) (opens in a new tab). These statistics were at exam entry level for students of all ages in England and the UK. However, data in this statistical release covers exam entries by 16 to 18 year olds in schools and colleges in England.
T Level outcomes are not included in this statistical release, but provisional results for 2023/24 were published by DfE in August for students who had started a T Level in England in 2022/23.
In addition, Ofqual (opens in a new tab) also routinely publish statistics on results day for students in England.
Performance measures are based on grades awarded throughout a student’s 16-18 study. In 2024, all performance data is based on externally assessed exams.
Comparison data for 2023 excludes results of qualifications awarded between January 2020 and August 2021 through the alternative process to award results during COVID-19, including AS and A level qualifications taken as part of the extraordinary autumn 2021 examination series. This means that where students have taken three years to complete 16-18 study and have also entered a qualification during their first year – the 2020/21 academic year – these results will not count towards 2023 performance measures. Whilst few students enter level 3 qualifications in their first of three years of study, the majority of level 2 technical certificate qualifications were excluded in 2023.
Where time series data is presented, comparisons are made to revised data for previous years (with the exception of 2019/20 and 2020/21 where no checking exercise took place; those data are labelled ‘final’ reflecting the opportunity students unhappy with grades awarded through the CAG and TAG awarding processes had to sit an exam in autumn 2020 (opens in a new tab) and 2021 (opens in a new tab)).
Students are eligible to be included in 16 to 18 performance measures if they are of academic age 16, 17 or 18 at the start of the 2023/24 academic year (31 August 2023) and at the end of their 16-18 studies. They are identified as being at the end of 16-18 study when they first meet at least one of the following criteria:
a) they have entered at least 2 qualifications, each of which is at least the size of an A level, or they have entered at least 1 qualification the size of at least 2 A levels, in the reporting year; OR
b) they have entered for both a T Level core and T Level occupational specialism during 16-18 study OR
c) they are 18 at the start of the reporting year and have not been reported in 16 to 18 performance measures at their current allocated school or college.
Schools or colleges are still able to defer students who meet criteria a) or b) but who are continuing their 16-18 study, as part of the checking exercise, as long as the student has not reached age 18 before the start of the reporting year. Requests for deferred reporting are reflected in ‘revised’ data.
Note, a student eligible for reporting in 16 to 18 performance measures will still also need to meet criteria for each performance measure to be included in that measure. For example, to be included in the average point score per A level entry, the student must have been entered for at least an AS qualification.
Unless stated otherwise, statistics reported here refer to 16 to 18 year olds in England:
- who reached the end of their 16-18 study in 2023/24. Students typically spend either two or three years in the 16 to 18 phase. Usually, attainment includes results from qualifications entered during all those years. However, for data labelled 2022/23 and 2021/22, attainment excludes results from qualifications that were awarded between January 2020 and August 2021.
- who entered qualifications approved for reporting in 2024 school and college performance tables, set out in the 16 to 18 qualifications, discount codes and point scores (opens in a new tab) guidance.
- at state-funded schools and colleges or independent schools in England; more details set out in Annex A of the Methodology.
Qualifications are grouped into A level (subset of Academic), applied general, and tech level exam cohorts at level 3, and technical certificates at level 2. Applied general, tech level and technical certificates are ‘vocational and technical qualifications’ (VTQs). Students can be reported in more than one exam cohort. Further detail on the cohorts is available in 16 to 18 accountability headline measures: technical guide (opens in a new tab).
Note, attainment outcomes data for applied general and tech level qualifications are not published in this provisional 2023/24 release due to incomplete data. Whilst some late results are expected in any given year, we have identified that the missing data would include the majority of fail or ‘U’ grades we expect for this academic year. As such, any provisional attainment statistics reported for these qualifications would be too high. For this reason, data for applied general and tech level measures are redacted with the symbol ‘x’, until complete data is available and published in the revised release of these statistics in February.
The number of applied general and tech level students that would have been reporting in provisional data for 2023/24 (101,392 and 22,566 respectively) are expected to be closer to figures published for 2022/23 once late results are included in revised data. Adding late results is also expected to increase the overall number of students recorded as being at the end of 16-18 study in revised data.
Also redacted are some A level measures (Best 3 A level attainment, and % of students achieving AAB including 2 facilitating subjects) where defining the students in scope for the measures requires accurate data on whether students are combining A levels with level 3 VTQs.
The A level cohort, which includes some students who just enter AS levels, continues to grow following an initial decline when A and AS levels were decoupled during A level reform (opens in a new tab).
The increase in the A level cohort size in 2021/22 and 2022/23 coincided with more students getting higher GCSE grades at KS4 two years earlier when students received centre-assessment and teacher assessed grades (CAGs and TAGs). The further increase in the A level cohort in 2023/24 has happened despite lower GCSE attainment in 2021/22.
In 2023/24 the technical certificate cohort (who generally enter the qualification in their first year of their 16 to 18 study) is now similar size to 2019/20. Lower student numbers in 2021/22 and 2022/23 were due to removing grades awarded through CAG/TAG, where the pattern of early entries meant this cohort was more strongly impacted (see section ‘Changes introduced in the 2021/22 release’ of the Methodology).
Disadvantaged status at 16 to 18 is as recorded at the end of Key Stage 4. Pupils are defined as disadvantaged at Key Stage 4 if they are known to have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the past six years (from year 6 to year 11), if they are recorded as having been looked after for at least one day or if they are recorded as having been adopted from care.
Disadvantage measures do not include students who were not reported at the end of KS4 – for example, because they came from overseas. Students who were known to be at independent schools in their last year of KS4 are treated as non-disadvantaged.
Disadvantage measures cover students in state-funded schools or colleges during 16-18 study.
At the end of 16-18 study, 23.2% of state-funded students were recorded as being disadvantaged in 2023/24. Disadvantaged students continue to be overrepresented in the technical certificate cohort and underrepresented in the A level cohort, with 31.3% and 14.0% respectively being disadvantaged.
Prior attainment is a measure of the average points attained per qualification at Key Stage 4. Simple discounting rules apply, with the best result in any subject used when calculating the average point score at KS4. Any GCSE resits or additional qualifications gained during 16 to 18 study are ignored. For the vast majority of students, prior attainment is between 0-9, reflecting the range of possible grades at GCSE (where 9 is the highest grade).
[Note, whilst results from January 2020 to August 2021 are removed from calculation of performance measures, for the purposes of this statistical release they will be retained when calculating a student’s prior attainment to explain outcomes in performance measures, in the same way that outcomes nationally are broken down by sex, disadvantage, etc].
In 2023/24, 19.7% of students at the end of their 16-18 study had the highest prior attainment (grade 7+). This year is the first year the proportion of students with the highest prior attainment has decreased since 2019/20 (when this prior attainment data was introduced). This is expected given the return to exams in 2021/22 when the majority of the cohort will have been at the end of Key stage 4.
The A level cohort has a high proportion of students with high prior attainment, at 36.6%, although the proportion of A level students with the lowest prior attainment (grade 0 to <4) has also increased. The technical certificate cohort has the highest proportion of students with low prior attainment (56.8% of the cohort) however this figure has been continuously falling since 2019/20, and is still lower than was seen before the impact of CAGs and TAGs on Key Stage 4 prior attainment.
These figures give the average points and average result that students achieved throughout their 16 to 18 study. Points are given to all qualifications so we can compare qualifications of different size and grading structures. A maximum of 60 points are available for A level, 50 points for applied general and tech level and 8 points for technical certificates. More information on points, average point score bands and grade boundaries can be found in the 16 to 18 accountability headline measures: technical guide (opens in a new tab).
The A level average point score per entry (APS) has risen from 35.29 to 35.49 when compared to last year.
In September 2022, Ofqual announced that 2023 would mark a return to pre-pandemic grading (opens in a new tab), but with some protection against disruption due to the impact of COVID-19. This year the same external assessment standards have been maintained, therefore the rise in A level APS can be interpreted as an increase in the performance of the student cohort rather than a reflection of the grading process.
The A level average point score (APS) has increased slightly when compared to last year for most major institution types, except for ‘Other FE sector colleges’ which fell by 0.2pts. The greatest rise was for ‘All independent schools’, with a small increase of 0.3pts compared to last year. Further detail is provided in the table for different types of state-funded schools showing some variation in the size of the increases in A level APS seen this year. Note that data for some institution types is based on small numbers of students.
At regional level, London and the South East have consistently achieved the highest average point scores (APS) within the A level cohort since 2019/20, and that continues to be the case this year. The East Midlands have had the largest drop in A level APS, falling by 0.3pts from last year.
These regional aggregations, however, mask much more varied APS at the level of local authorities. For this reason, users should exercise caution when making geographical generalisations.
Disadvantage status at 16-18 is as recorded at the end of Key Stage 4. Pupils are defined as disadvantaged at Key Stage 4 if they are known to have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the past six years (from year 6 to year 11), if they are recorded as having been looked after for at least one day or if they are recorded as having been adopted from care.
Disadvantage measures do not include students who were not reported at the end of KS4 – for example, because they came from overseas. Students who were known to be at independent schools in their last year of KS4 are treated as non-disadvantaged.
Disadvantage measures, and all breakdowns including disadvantage status, cover students in state-funded schools or colleges only.
In 2023/24, the average point scores (APS) for both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged A level students have increased slightly compared to last year.
The proportion of A level disadvantaged students, and the proportion of A level non-disadvantaged students, have both fallen this year by 0.3ppts and 0.2ppts respectively. The proportion of A level students with unknown disadvantage status has risen by 0.5ppts.
The A level cohort has a disadvantage gap of 4.9pts, unchanged from last year. This remains higher than the disadvantage gap reported during the CAG and TAG grading years (2019/20 and 2020/21 respectively).
To get a fuller picture on the impact of disadvantaged status, this data should be looked at in conjunction with data on retention rates (the percentage of students who have completed their main study programme at a provider). In 2022/23, 93.7% of non-disadvantaged A level students were retained and assessed compared to 86.8% of disadvantaged students. Students can only be included in the APS measure if they are entered for examination i.e. if they are retained and assessed. More information on 2022/23 retention can be found in the 2022/23 version of this statistical release. An update to this statistical release with 2023/24 retention figures is expected to be released in March/April 2025.
Within the A level cohort, female students continue to achieve higher average point scores (APS) compared to male students, as has been the trend for the past five years. The gap, however, has remained stable in comparison to last year, with a difference of 1.2pts in favour of females.
The proportion of male students who are disadvantaged (13.0%) and female students who are disadvantaged (14.7%) is broadly similar at A level.
The disadvantage gap is comparable for female and male students (5.0pts and 4.9pts respectively). This is the closest the female and male disadvantage gaps have been in the last 5 years, and is narrower than last year where the disadvantage gaps were 5.1pts and 4.8pts for female and male students respectively.
Ethnicity is as reported at the end of Key Stage 4. Not all student characteristics are reported for students at independent schools; in this case ethnicity is recorded as unknown. This year ethnicity groupings have been harmonised to align with Government Statistical Service (GSS) standards (opens in a new tab) such that the Chinese ethnicity now falls within the Asian or Asian British group.
At A level, most ethnicities had broadly similar attainment except for Black or Black British students, which had an average points score (APS) at least 2.5 points lower than that of any other major ethnic group. White students achieved the highest APS, which was just under 4 points higher than that of Black or Black British students.
The rank order of attainment by ethnicity has remained almost unchanged at A level for the past five years, including through the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes to the grading processes.
At A level, 9.7% of White students, 19.9% of Asian or Asian British students, 21.0% of Mixed Dual background students, 34.4% of ‘any other ethnic group’ students, and 35.6% of Black or Black British students, had disadvantage status. This ordering has remained unchanged for the last four years, and the proportions have been gradually reducing each year across all ethnic groups. The proportion of disadvantaged students will impact on each ethnic groups' overall APS.
At A level, non-disadvantaged students attained a higher APS than disadvantaged students across all ethnicity groups. The disadvantaged gap is largest for students from the White ethnic group (5.4pts) and smallest for students from the Black or Black British ethnic group (2.1pts). For the Asian or Asian British students, and the Mixed Dual background students, the disadvantage gap has widened slightly this year compared to last year by 0.1pts each. The disadvantage gap for students within the Any other ethnic group and the Black or Black British ethnic group has narrowed by 0.2pts and 0.1pts respectively. The disadvantage gap for White ethnic students has remained the same.
Since 2019/20 (from when this prior attainment data is available) the A level attainment gap between students with the highest and lowest prior attainment had previously remained stable (including throughout different grading processes). This year however, the gap has widened, rising from 25.2pts to 26.8pts (approximately 2.5 grades to just under 2.7 grades).
Note that the number of students in each cohort from each prior attainment band varies between cohorts. At A level, 36.6%, 58.8% and 1.8% of students had a prior attainment of 7+, 4 to 7 and 0 to 4, respectively.
This year, the percentage of the A level cohort with an EHC plan is 0.5%, and the percentage with SEN support is 4.3%. The number of A level students with an EHC plan has remained level in comparison to last year, as has the number of students with no identified SEN, but the number of students with SEN support has grown by 8%.
In 2023/24, the A level average points score (APS) has fallen by 0.3pts for students with an EHC plan compared with 2022/23, however the APS has risen by 0.6pts for students with SEN support. Similarly, students with no identified SEN have also seen an increase in APS by 0.2pts.
A level attainment is generally lower for all SEN students compared with the CAG and TAG years of 2019/20 and 2020/21.
Breakdowns of other student characteristics such as first language, free school meals status, and detailed ethnicity and SEN breakdowns, including these broken down further by disadvantage status, are available in the create your own tables sections of this statistical release: Create your own tables, Table Tool – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)
This section replaces one that usually describes outcomes in the English and maths progress accountability measures. These are not being created from 2021/22 to 2023/24 in Compare School and College Performance Data (opens in a new tab) due to the impact of excluding CAG and TAG grades on this measure (set out in more detail in the 16 to 18 accountability measures: technical guide (opens in a new tab)).
These results are based on a different methodology to previous years data. They now cover entries and outcomes in below level 3 English and maths qualifications for students at the end of 16 to 18 study, i.e. the same cohort of students eligible for attainment and retention measures. Discounting has also been applied to the major qualification groups, for example, if a student sat two GCSEs in maths and two other level 2 qualifications in maths, the highest outcome from the two GCSEs and the highest outcome from the other level 2 qualifications are reported here.
In combination, the methodology change enables pass rates in GCSE and Functional Skill qualifications to be compared more directly. Previously, data was reported for all exam entries by 16-18 year olds in a given academic year, and comparison was complicated by the different assessment for Functional Skills, where each ‘entry’ possibly reflected multiple assessment attempts.
The new methodology has been applied to the 5 years of below level 3 English and maths data reported in this release.
Most students aged 16 to 18 enter below level 3 English and maths qualifications because they did not achieve a GCSE pass at grade 9-4 or equivalent during key stage 4, and so are required to continue to study those subjects under Condition of Funding rules (opens in a new tab) (CoF).
The number of below level 3 English and maths entries are consistent with last year’s entries but are notably lower compared to 2019/20. The follows more students achieving a 9-4 GCSE pass during KS4 (in particular through CAG and TAG processes to award grades during COVID-19).
The proportion of entries into each qualification group (i.e. GCSE, other level 2 qualification etc.) has also remained consistent between 2022/23 and 2023/24. Many more age 16-18 students enter GCSEs (a level 1/level 2 qualification) than are entered for Functional Skills (the main alternative, with distinct qualifications at level 2, level 1 and Entry level). This is despite level 2 Functional Skills being a pathway out of the CoF for students with a GCSE grade 2 or below and having a higher pass rate than GCSE (at grade 4 or above).
The fall in English and maths pass rates at level 2 in both Functional Skills and GCSE in the last two years mainly reflects the return of pre-pandemic grading standards. But it may also reflect the smaller cohort of students resitting English and maths qualifications following larger numbers already being awarded a grade 9-4 at KS4 through the CAG/TAG awarding processes during COVID-19.
The English GCSE grade 4 or above pass rate continues to be higher than the maths pass rate (41% and 26% respectively). This gap has been widening since 2020/21, where the difference was 6ppts and this year the difference is 14ppts. Similarly the pass rate for L2 Functional Skills is higher for English, the difference with maths widening since 2020/21, from 2ppts in 2020/21 to 8ppts this year.
Disadvantaged students have lower pass rates across GCSE and Functional Skills qualifications
Disadvantaged students are more likely to be in the below level 3 cohort compared with non-disadvantaged students. Entries by disadvantaged students are overrepresented in the below level 3 cohorts, making up approximately 35% of entries despite being only 23.2% of the population of students at the end of 16-18 study.
The pass rate at both GCSE and Functional Skills at level 2 and level 1 are consistently lower for disadvantaged compared with non-disadvantaged students. The greatest difference is in English GCSE 9-4 where the non-disadvantaged pass rate is 14.8ppts higher than the disadvantaged pass rate. Although maths GCSE 9-4 pass rates are lower than English, the disadvantage gap for maths is smaller (9.7ppts).
The cohort of entries into below level 3 English and maths by ethnicity major groups is mostly representative of the overall cohort of students at the end of 16-18 study, with about 9% Asian or Asian British, 6% Black or Black British, 5% Mixed Dual background, 57% White and 2% Any other ethnic group. The exception is the White ethnic group which has a lower proportion in the below level 3 English and maths cohort. The White ethnicity major group has the lowest pass rate in GCSE 9-4 but the highest pass rate in Level 2 functional skills. Conversely, Asian or Asian British has the highest GCSE 9-4 pass rate but the second lowest Level 2 functional skills pass rate (Any other ethnic group has the lowest).
Most entries in below level 3 English and maths qualifications are at ‘Other FE sector colleges’. For context, the number of students at the end of 16-18 study in ‘Other FE sector colleges’ is broadly comparable to the number in all state-funded schools.
‘Other FE sector’ colleges have the lowest pass rate for GCSE 9-4 in both English and maths whereas independent schools had the highest pass rate. However, ‘Other FE sector’ colleges did have the highest pass rate in English and maths level 2 Functional Skills compared with all state-funded schools, sixth form colleges and independent schools. Most entries in level 2 Functional Skills are in ‘Other FE sector’ colleges.
These data are available through the ‘Explore data and files used in this release’ section in the files called ‘Time series – APS entry by institution type’ and ‘Time series – A level subject entries and grade by sex.
In addition, all the data is accessible through the dashboard linked below. The dashboard combines provisional data for 2023/24 from this statistical release with selected historical data compiled from previous versions of the ‘A level and other 16 to 18 results’ statistical release:
16-18 Time-series attainment and single year entries (opens in a new tab)
These data are available through the dashboard 16-18 Transition Matrices (opens in a new tab) and in the ‘Additional supporting files' section of this release, along with instructions for their use.
Transition matrices (TM) are a useful tool to help visualise the progression from different groups of attainment at key stage 4 (KS4) to outcomes achieved during 16 to 18 for a range of different subjects.
Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.
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