FFT Education Datalab

There was a lot of talk about improving attendance in the Schools White Paper, released earlier this year (92 mentions of the word “attendance”, in fact). This culminated in the “key delivery commitment” of a 1.3 percentage point (pp) increase in attendance between the 2023/24 and 2028/29 academic years. This is equivalent to a 0.9pp increase between 2024/25 and 2028/29, as attendance improved by 0.4 pp between 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Results for GCSEs and other Level 2 qualifications are out today. And, as ever, we’ve been digging into all the published data to bring you our analysis of all the main trends. Our analysis is based on the national figures published by the Joint Council for Qualifications and Ofqual. If you want more detail about any individual GCSE subject then visit our dedicated results microsite.

After last week’s A-level results day, this Thursday it’s the turn of GCSEs and other Level 2 qualifications. As usual, we’ll be posting our analysis throughout the day. The FFT Early Results Service will open to subscribing schools on Wednesday morning. And the team will be running a free webinar on Friday at 11am, focussing on where your school sits in the national picture.

Results for A-Levels, T-Levels and other Level 3 qualifications are out today. And we’ve crunched the numbers to bring you all the headlines from the data published today. That data comes from the Joint Council for Qualifications and Ofqual and tends to mostly focus on A-Levels. Because of that, this post will also focus largely on A-Levels, but it’s worth remembering that only around 40% of young people take this route.

Results day for Level 3 qualifications – including A-Levels and T-Levels – is later this week. As always, we’ll be posting analysis on the day. We’re also running a results day webinar, where we’ll talk you through all of our results day analysis along with exclusive insights from FFT’s Early Results Service. It’s on 10 September and is completely free. Sign up now to book your place. In the meantime, this post rounds up what we’ll be keeping an eye out for on the day.

Want to hear our analysis of this year’s exams results and what they might mean for the year ahead? Join us for a free webinar on Thursday 10th September 2026. The end of Summer Term this year has been eventful for schools. Not only have we seen widespread disruption to lessons due to heatwaves, there’s also been a flurry of activity in the DfE, including the appointment of a new education secretary.

What data can and can’t tell us about the impact of MATs on student outcomes By FFT Education Datalab|9th July 2026|Evaluation reports| A report for McKinnon, an independent not-for-profit organisation, reviewing the latest evidence on the impact of MATs on student outcomes, including thoughts on new research to improve the evidence base. What data can and can’t tell us about the impact of MATs on student outcomes

The Inquiry into White working class educational outcomes published its report earlier in the week, making a recommendation that improving reading fluency should be a central priority for improving outcomes for the group. This makes some sense. A certain level of reading fluency is necessary to access the secondary curriculum. But what do we know about how reading fluency develops during primary education for this group of pupils?

Unless you’ve been living in a (lovely, cool) cave, you’re unlikely to have missed the fact that there was a heatwave last week. Temperatures peaked at 37C and schools around the country closed their doors, with some reports suggesting as many as 1,200 schools were closed at the height of the heatwave. Even where schools remained open pupils may have felt exhausted, or seen existing heath conditions aggravated, after a series of sweltering days and nights.

Ofsted introduced its new inspection framework in November last year. Since then, the relationship between the achievement grade and disadvantage has been subject to scrutiny. In response, Ofsted published some analysis showing the relationship between the achievement grade and the attainment of disadvantaged pupils. This showed that the two were positively correlated. Grades increased with attainment. Case closed? I’m not so sure.