Academic year 2023/24

Key stage 4 destination measures

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Introduction

The latest data in this release covers students who left key stage 4 study in 2022/23 and follows their destinations in 2023/24. 

Destination measures provide information on the success of schools and colleges in helping young people continue in education, apprenticeships or employment. 

These official statistics show the percentage of pupils continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in England in the year after completing key stage 4 study (after year 11) from state-funded mainstream schools.

The release also provides information on destination outcomes for different groups of pupils and education providers.

There has been a change to the methodology used in the release this year. The change has been retrospectively applied to earlier years in the series. Full details are available in the methodology document accompanying the release.

Related information

Releases in this series

View releases (17) for Key stage 4 destination measures

Methodologies

Headline facts and figures - 2023/24

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What are destination measures?

What are destination measures?

Destination measures provide information on the success of schools and colleges in helping young people continue in education, apprenticeships or employment.

Key stage 4 destination measures follow pupils who were at the end of key stage 4 study (GCSE and equivalent qualifications) in 2022/23, and reports their destinations in the following academic year (2023/24).

They show the percentage of pupils going to an education, apprenticeship or employment destination. To be counted in a destination, young people must have sustained participation for a 6 month period in the destination year. Full details are provided in the methodology document that accompanies this release.

The headline statistics refer to pupils leaving state-funded mainstream schools in England.

Some pupils do not sustain their destination for at least two terms, these students are recorded as “Not recorded as a sustained destination”. 

Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic disruption

Destination outcomes in 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years were affected by the disruption to the economy and educational settings caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 2020, 2021 and 2022 leavers (with destination outcomes 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23) were also impacted by changes to grading approaches during these years as well as the ongoing uneven impacts of the pandemic on different schools, colleges and pupils.

Methodology changes

There has been a change to the methodology used in the release this year.  The change has been retrospectively applied to earlier years in the series.  Full details are available in the methodology document accompanying the release.

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Pupil characteristics

Disadvantage status and pupil premium

Pupils were considered disadvantaged in year 11 and were eligible for pupil premium funding if they had been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years, had been looked after by the local authority, or had been adopted from care. Pupils eligible for free school meals are a subset of the wider disadvantaged group. See methodology for details.

Disadvantage status

Disadvantaged pupils are less likely to have a sustained destination

Disadvantaged pupils (those eligible for pupil premium  (opens in new tab)funding) were less likely to have a sustained destination (83%) than all other pupils (94.2%).  This is a gap of 11.2 percentage points

The most common education destination for disadvantaged pupils was further education (45.6% of total destinations), compared to a school sixth form destination (39.7% of total destinations) for non-disadvantaged pupils.

Disadvantaged pupils were more likely to enter an employment destination and less likely to go into a sustained apprenticeship than all other pupils. Disadvantaged pupils were also more likely not to sustain a destination (11.3%) compared to all other pupils (3.7%).

Disadvantage status

The gap between sustained destinations for disadvantage and non-disadvantage students has increased in recent years

As commented above, the gap between disadvantage and non-disadvantage pupils is 11.2 percentage points for the latest cohort of KS4 leavers.  This has increased from 10.4 percentage points last year and continues the increase that started in 2019/20 when the gap was 8.1 percentage points.

Sex

Female pupils were more likely to have a sustained destination than male pupils

With female pupils 4 percentage points more likely to have a sustained education destination. Conversely, male pupils were more likely to have a sustained apprenticeship or employment destination.  The overall gap in sustained destinations remain broadly similar to last year.

Ethnicity

Pupils from Chinese and Indian backgrounds were most likely to have a sustained destination

This was driven by these students being most likely to have a sustained education destination. Pupils from Gypsy Roma backgrounds were least likely to have a sustained education destination.

Pupils from Gypsy Roma and White British backgrounds were most likely to have a sustained employment destination.  Pupils from Black African, Bangladeshi, Indian, Any Other Asian and Chinese backgrounds were least likely to have a sustained employment destination.

SEN support and Education, health and care plans

SEN support is given in school. It can include, for example, a special learning programme, extra help from a teacher or assistant, to work in a small group, observation in class or at break, help taking part in class activities etc.

Education, health and care plans (EHC) are for young people, aged up to 25, who need more support than is available through special educational needs support. EHC plans identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs.

Special Educational Needs

Pupils with no identified special educational need (SEN) were most likely to have sustained any destination; those pupils with SEN support were least likely to have sustained an education, apprenticeship or employment destination.

86.7% of pupils with no identified SEN sustained an education destination, compared to 78.4% for those with identified SEN.

For students with an identified special educational needs, SEN support and students with an education and health care plan had similar overall sustained destination rates.  Those students with an EHCP were more likely to continue in education whereas SEN support students were more likely to continue in an apprenticeship or employment after KS4.

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Geographical location

Pupils from London were most likely to have an overall sustained destination, with pupils from North East being least likely. 

The gap in overall sustained destinations between London and the North East is 3.7 percentage points, continuing the widening of the gap between the two regions in recent years.

91.2% of pupils from Outer London sustained an education destination, closely followed by Inner London with 90.4% of pupils. These values are 5.7 and 4.9 percentage points greater than the national average.

Pupils from the North East were most likely to have a sustained apprenticeship destination, whereas Inner London had the lowest proportion of pupils sustaining an apprenticeship destination.

The highest employment destination rate is for the South East where 3.7% of pupils  sustained an employment destination, with pupils from Inner London were least likely to sustain an employment destination. 

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Change over time

In the 2023/24 academic year, 91.3% of pupils had a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing key stage 4. This continues a slight downward trend compared to previous years.

Education destinations have decreased by 0.5 percentage points this year, a similar decrease to last year.  The proportion of pupils having sustained employment destinations has decreased this year (0.4 percentage points) following a small increase last year (0.1 percentage points) and the proportion of pupils who sustained an education destination fell by 0.5 percentage points and those sustaining an apprenticeship rose by 0.1 percentage points. 

Employment destinations are still higher than pre-COVID levels whilst education and apprenticeship destinations remain lower.  There has been a larger decrease in education destinations which has resulted in the overall sustained destination rate falling.

Many of the pupils who did not have a sustained destination (5.7% in 2023/24) will have had some participation in the year after finishing key stage 4 but did not sustain the destination throughout the required 6 month period.

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Prior attainment

Attainment and destinations are closely linked

Pupils’ attainment at the end of primary school (key stage 2) and at the end of key stage 4, have a strong relationship with the likelihood of staying in education, apprenticeships or employment, and with the specific destinations to which they progress.

Attainment at different points in time

The measures indicating whether students have met key thresholds are published by the Department for Education as outcomes from, and accountability measures for, these key stages. Although some students make faster or slower progress during secondary school, attainment at the two key stages is closely correlated. 

The prior attainment thresholds referenced reflect the policies in place at the time the cohort completed those key stages and may differ from current benchmarks.

Further information on the prior attainment levels at key stage 2 and key stage 4 can be found in the methodology section of this release.

Prior attainment

Attainment for this cohort of students is available for two sets of assessments - the end of key stage 2 (KS2), when children take national tests in English reading, maths, and grammar, punctuation and spelling (age 11); and at the end of key stage 4 (KS4), when most pupils take GCSEs or other equivalent qualifications (age 16).

Key stage 4 attainment shows whether pupils achieved a grade of either 4 or above in English and maths GCSEs.

Prior Attainment at key stage 2 (age 11)

Pupils who had high prior attainment 4 at key stage 2 (KS2) were more likely to have a sustained destination than pupils who had middle or low attainment.

Pupils who had high prior attainment at KS2 were more likely to have an overall sustained destination than those pupils who had middle or low prior attainment. Pupils who had high prior attainment at KS2 were more likely to have a sustained education destination, but least likely to sustain an apprenticeship or employment destination. 

Pupils who had low prior attainment at KS2 were most likely to have a sustained employment destination out of all prior attainment at KS2 groups, however they were least likely to have a sustained education destination (76.6%). 

Prior Attainment at key stage 4 (age 16)

Pupils who achieved grades 9 to 4 in English and maths at key stage 4 (KS4) were more likely to have an overall sustained destination (education, apprenticeship or employment) than those who didn't. 

There was a considerable gap (20.5 percentage points) in the proportion of pupils who had a sustained education destination between those who achieved at least grade 4 English and maths and those who didn't. Pupils not achieving at least grade 4 in English and maths were much more likely to attend FE destinations (57.3 %), whereas those that did were more likely to attend school sixth forms (48.6%).

The students who did not achieve at least grade 4 in English and maths at KS4 were more likely to have a sustained apprenticeship (4.2%) or employment destination (4.6%) than students who did achieve at least grade 4.

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Mainstream institution type

Pupils from converter academies were more likely to have a sustained destination than pupils from any other institution types

Pupils from converter academies were most likely to have a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination, whereas pupils from FE colleges with 14 to 16 provision were least likely to have sustained any destination. This was driven by education destinations: 86.9% of all pupils from converter academies and 66.9% from FE colleges with 14 to 16 provision sustained an education destination. 

Pupils from University Technical Colleges were most likely to have a sustained apprenticeship destination, this was closely followed by studio schools. Free schools had the lowest proportion of pupils sustaining an apprenticeship destination.

University Technical Colleges had the highest proportion of pupils sustaining an employment destination, 1.8 percentage points higher than the national average. Pupils from free schools had the lowest proportion of pupils sustaining an employment destination.

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Other institution types

The commentary in this release focuses on pupil destinations after leaving state funded mainstream schools, in this section we discuss pupil destinations from other types of institution.

Special schools

A number of pupils go to schools specifically for pupils with special educational needs – ‘special schools’. These pupils may either go to state-funded special schools, or non-maintained special schools where state-funding follows the learner. The different types of special school are not shown separately.

Of pupils in special schools, 89% had an overall sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination compared to 91.3% for pupils in state-funded mainstream schools. 

Over half of pupils from special schools (54%) stayed in the special school sector, 27.5% sustained a further education destination, whilst only 0.6% sustained an employment destination and 0.2% sustained an apprenticeship destination.

Alternative provision (AP)

State place funded AP includes pupil referral units, academy and free school alternative provision and hospital schools.

Other alternative provision includes education funded by the local authority outside of state place funded schools, including independent schools, non-maintained special schools, and providers who do not meet the criteria for registration as a school.

Less than 2% of pupils who completed key stage 4 were mainly attending state place funded AP or other types of alternative provision. 59.2% of pupils from AP went to a sustained destination, compared with 91.3% from state-funded mainstream schools. 

In 2023/24, 54.2% of pupils from AP sustained an education destination, the same proportion as the 2022 leavers. The majority of these pupils sustained further education destinations (27.7% for 2023 leavers).

Around a fifth (20.7%) of pupils in any AP provision did not sustain a destination for the required 6-month period, this compares to 5.7% of students from state funded mainstream schools. A larger proportion of AP pupils had no activity captured compared to mainstream pupils (20.1% compared to 3%). 

AP pupils were more likely to go on to employment (3.7% compared to 2.6% in mainstream schools).

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Help and support

Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

Official statistics

These are Official Statistics and have been produced in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics (opens in new tab).

This can be broadly interpreted to mean that these statistics are:

  • managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
  • meet identified user needs
  • produced according to sound methods
  • well explained and readily accessible

Find out more about the standards we follow to produce these statistics through our Standards for official statistics published by DfE guidance (opens in new tab).

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics (opens in new tab) that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website (opens in new tab).

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Key stage 4 destination measures statistics and data:

Destination measures

Email: Destination.MEASURES@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Daniel Brown

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