Press release

Education and employment destination data published

The statistics show the onward destination of pupils from state schools, colleges and local authorities.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government
Student giving a presentation

The Department for Education today published data showing what proportion of students in every state-funded mainstream school, college and local authority in England progressed to further or higher education, or went into employment or training.

The figures for universities are broken down to Oxbridge level, any Russell Group university, a university ranked in the top third (defined by the UCAS A level tariff score of entrants), or any higher education institution (HEI).

The statistics, published as part of the government’s transparency agenda, give parents and the public even greater information with which they can choose the right school or college for their child.

In particular, today’s statistics, which relate to maintained schools, further education colleges and sixth-form colleges, show what proportion and number of students were:

  • in ‘sustained’ education and employment in the academic year 2010 to 2011, ie for at least 6 months, at age 16 and after they take A level or other level 3 qualifications
  • at any higher education institution, a top third university, a Russell Group university or Oxbridge in the academic year 2010 to 2011

Schools Minister David Laws said:

We are publishing this data so people can see for themselves how different schools, colleges and local authorities perform. Parents have more information than ever before on which to base decisions.

These statistics demonstrate the gulf between the schools and colleges which deliver for their students - and those which do not.

Some students will be aiming to get a job after college, others will be hoping to win a place at a great university. But all schools and colleges must ensure they deliver for all their students, whatever that student’s target.

The package of reforms we are making to the education system will help all schools and colleges do this. We are toughening up GCSEs, delivering more support through the £2.5 billion pupil premium and expanding the academy system so more schools have strong leadership and performance.

Headline statistics

In the year after taking an A level or equivalent at key stage 5:

  • 62% of young people were in some form of sustained education, with 48% at a higher education institution (1% at Oxbridge, 8% at Russell Group universities, and 14% at top third universities).
  • London local authorities dominate the table of those councils sending the highest proportion of students to university - Redbridge (66%), Ealing and Enfield (both 64%) top the list.
  • Fewer than a third of students in schools or colleges in Portsmouth, Southampton and Bristol go to university.
  • Only 3% of students attending schools or colleges in Knowsley and Rochdale go to a top third university. This compares to 41% of students at schools or colleges in Reading.
  • Not a single student at schools or colleges in 8 local authorities - Sandwell, Islington, Barking and Dagenham, Swindon, Knowsley, Halton, Barnsley and Rochdale - attended Oxbridge.
  • Reading (6%) and Bournemouth, Buckinghamshire and Sutton (all 3%) provided the highest proportion of Oxbridge students.

The statistics also highlight that in some local authorities, high levels of students drop out after they finish sixth form - only 56% of students in Norfolk were in any form of sustained education or employment/training. That compares with 81% of students in St Helens and Enfield who were in sustained education or employment/training.

In the year after key stage 4:

  • 89% of young people were in sustained education or employment/training.
  • 82% of students in Nottingham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and 83% in Wakefield and Sunderland were in any form of sustained education or employment/training.

That compares to 95% in the Isles of Scilly, and 93% in Harrow, Sutton, Slough and Redbridge who were in sustained education or employment/training.

Key stage 5 - for students who took A levels or equivalent qualifications

Regions

Proportion going to HEI
Region %
Greater London 56%
North West 53%
North East 51%
West Midlands 49%
Yorkshire and Humber 49%
East Midlands 48%
East of England 47%
South East 43%
South West 40%

Local authorities

Top 10 – proportion going to any HEI

Local authority %
Redbridge 66%
Ealing 64%
Enfield 64%
Tower Hamlets 63%
Sutton 63%
Brent 62%
Waltham Forest 62%
Hammersmith and Fulham 61%
Luton 61%
Wokingham 60%
Hounslow 60%
Reading 60%

Top 10 - proportion going to any top third HEI

Local authority %
Reading 41%
Sutton 36%
Buckinghamshire 30%
Barnet 29%
Trafford 28%
Bournemouth 27%
Wokingham 26%
Redbridge 26%
Slough 24%
Ealing 24%

Top 10 – proportion going to any Russell Group university

Local authority %
Reading 27%
Sutton 22%
Trafford 21%
Buckinghamshire 20%
Barnet 17%
Wirral 15%
Bournemouth 15%
Kirklees 13%
Wigan 13%
North Yorkshire 13%
West Berkshire 13%
Wokingham 13%

Top 10 - proportion going to Oxbridge

Local authority %
Reading 6%
Bournemouth 3%
Buckinghamshire 3%
Sutton 3%
Merton 2%
Wiltshire 2%
Bromley 2%
Kingston upon Thames 2%
Kensington and Chelsea 2%
West Berkshire 2%
Barnet 2%
Trafford 2%

Schools and colleges classified as non-selective - key stage 5

Note: for some students at schools and colleges, progression to a university will not be the aim.

Top 10 – proportion going to any HEI

Local authority School School type %
Brent Newman Catholic College VA 100%
Harrow Canons High School Community 96%
Bradford Aire Valley School Foundation 96%
Surrey Christ’s College, Guildford VA 85%
Redbridge Ilford Ursuline High School VA 84%
Enfield St Ignatius College VA 83%
Liverpool St Francis Xavier’s College Foundation 83%
Hillingdon Guru Nanak Sikh Voluntary Aided Secondary School VA 82%
Coventry Lyng Hall School Foundation 82%
Southwark Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich Sponsored academy 81%
St Helens Rainford High Technology College Community 81%
Bradford Greenhead High School Community 81%

There are 2 schools where no student progressed to any HEI.

Top 10 - proportion going to any top third HEI

Local authority School School type %
Hertfordshire Watford Grammar School for Girls Academy 65%
Hertfordshire Watford Grammar School for Boys Academy 62%
Hertfordshire Dame Alice Owen’s School VA 50%
Hertfordshire Parmiter’s School VA 49%
Wirral Birkenhead High School Academy Sponsored academy 49%
Wigan Winstanley College Sixth-form college 48%
Kensington and Chelsea The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial RC School VA 46%
Derbyshire Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School VC 46%
Croydon Coloma Convent Girls’ School VA 45%
West Berkshire The Downs School Foundation 44%

There are 190 schools where no student progressed to a top third HEI.

Top 10 - proportion going to any Russell Group university

Local authority School School type %
Hertfordshire Watford Grammar School for Boys Academy 50%
Hertfordshire Watford Grammar School for Girls Academy 45%
Wirral Birkenhead High School Academy Sponsored academy 41%
Nottinghamshire The Becket School VA 36%
Hertfordshire Dame Alice Owen’s School VA 35%
Wigan Winstanley College Sixth-form college 33%
Hertfordshire Parmiter’s School VA 31%
Liverpool St Edward’s College VA 31%
Liverpool King David High School VA 30%
Derbyshire Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School VC 29%
Croydon Coloma Convent Girls’ School VA 29%
Kirklees Greenhead College Sixth-form college 29%
Gateshead Emmanuel College CTC 29%
Hertfordshire Yavneh College VA 29%

There are 359 schools where no student progressed to a Russell Group university.

Top 10 - proportion going to Oxbridge

Local authority School School type %
Suffolk St Benedict’s Catholic School VA 7%
Hertfordshire Dame Alice Owen’s School VA 7%
Kensington and Chelsea The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial RC School VA 7%
Hammersmith and Fulham Lady Margaret School VA 6%
Hertfordshire Watford Grammar School for Boys Academy 6%
North Somerset Nailsea School Community 6%
Hertfordshire Watford Grammar School for Girls Academy 5%
Durham Durham Johnston Comprehensive School Community 5%
North Yorkshire Stokesley School Community 5%
Essex St John Payne Catholic Comprehensive School, Chelmsford VA 5%
Hertfordshire Stanborough School Community 5%
West Berkshire The Downs School Foundation 5%
Somerset The Blue School Foundation 5%
Cambridgeshire Hills Road Sixth Form College Sixth-form college 5%
Oxfordshire Fitzharrys School Community 5%
Dorset The Sir John Colfox School Community 5%
Oxfordshire The Cherwell School Community 5%

There are 1,394 schools where no student went to Oxbridge.

Notes to editors

  • To see the statistics, visit Statistics: Destinations of key stage 4 and key stage 5 pupils: 2010 to 2011.

  • This publication on ‘education and employment destination measures’ is classified as experimental statistics as the data is still being evaluated and remains subject to further testing in terms of their reliability and ability to meet customer needs.

  • This statistical first release (SFR) reports on young people in key stage 4 (KS4) and key stage 5 (KS5) in the 2009 to 2010 academic year and identifies their education and employment or training destinations in the 2010 to 2011 academic year.

KS4

The 2009 to 2010 cohort is obtained from the published performance tables (PT) where young people are identified as being at the end of KS4. In the majority of schools, pupils in year 11 in the 2009 to 2010 school year were at the end of KS4, but some may have completed this key stage in an earlier or later year group.

The base cohort includes students in state-funded mainstream schools in England only.

KS5

The 2009 to 2010 cohort is obtained from the published performance tables where young people aged 16, 17 or 18, were entered for A levels or other level 3 qualifications during the 2009 to 2010 academic year; this is otherwise referred to as ‘key stage 5’.

The qualifications included in the tables are on the basis of their equivalence with A levels; A qualification’s ‘equivalence’ is quantified by looking at its size and the level of challenge it poses compared to an A level. An ‘AS’ is a level 3 qualification but students only get included in the cohort if they have undertaken a qualification equivalent to the size of an A level.

The destination measures KS5 cohort is for state-funded mainstream schools plus the addition of further education colleges and sixth-form colleges.

  • Creation of the destination measures requires higher education (HESA) data to be matched to the pupil data in the national pupil database. The HESA data used in this release are for the academic year 2010 to 2011 and these are the most recent data to have been matched. This publication is therefore reporting on 2009 to 2010 KS4 and KS5 (A level or equivalent qualification/s) students who went on to education destinations in the academic year 2010 to 2011.
  • The Russell Group, as at June 2010, comprised: University of Birmingham, University of Bristol, University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, Imperial College London, King’s College London, University of Leeds, University of Liverpool, London School of Economics & Political Science, University of Manchester, Newcastle University, University of Nottingham, University of Oxford, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton, University College London, and University of Warwick.
  • The top third selective HEIs, calculated according to mean UCAS A level tariff score of entrants, 2010 to 2011, comprised: Aston University, Cardiff University, City University, Courtauld Institute of Art, Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, Goldsmiths College, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Heythrop College, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Kings College London, London School of Economics and Political Science, Loughborough University, Queen Mary and Westfield College, Queens University of Belfast, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Royal Veterinary College, School of Oriental and African Studies, School of Pharmacy, St Georges Hospital Medical School, University College London, University of Aberdeen, University of Bath, University of Birmingham, University of Bristol, University of Cambridge, University of Dundee, University of Durham, University of East Anglia, University of Edinburgh, University of Exeter, University of Glasgow, University of Lancaster, University of Leeds, University of Leicester, University of Liverpool, University of Manchester, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, University of Nottingham, University of Oxford, University of Reading, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton, University of St Andrews, University of Surrey, University of Sussex, University of Warwick, University of York.

DfE enquiries

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General enquiries - for members of the public 0370 000 2288

Published 20 June 2013