News story

Government publishes destination data for the first time

Details of new data on how many students progressed to further or higher education or training for each school, college and local authority in England.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

The Department for Education today published new data showing how many students progressed to further or higher education or training for each school, college and local authority in England.

It is also the first time that the number and proportion of young people in a school, college and authority who attend Oxbridge or another Russell Group university is being published.

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 in the academic year 2009 to 2010, ie for at least six months, at both age 16 and after they take A level or equivalent qualifications
  • at any higher education institution, any Russell Group university or just Oxbridge in 2009 and 2010.

It is the latest step in the Department for Education’s pledge to open up a mass of previously unpublished statistics.

Schools Minister Lord Hill said:

We are opening up access to this new data so people can see how different schools and colleges, and local authorities, perform. It gives parents greater information on which to base decisions.

He added:

It is interesting to see how well some local authorities in more deprived areas, and some schools and colleges in those authorities, do in terms of students going to our best universities, compared to those in other parts of the country.

Headline statistics

In the year after taking an A level or equivalent at Key Stage 5:

64% of young people were in a sustained education, with:

  • 8% at a further education college
  • 2% at a school sixth form or sixth form college
  • 2% on an apprenticeship at these institutions and
  • 52% at a higher education institution - with one per cent at Oxbridge and another 8% at other Russell Group universities.

Harrow was the local authority with the highest percentage of young people in sustained education the year after their A level or equivalent qualifications, at 79%.

Portsmouth had the lowest percentage of young people recorded as being in sustained education, at 48%

In the year after Key Stage 4:

85% of young people were in sustained education, with:

  • 36% at school sixth forms
  • 33% at further education colleges
  • 12% of young people at sixth form colleges and
  • 4% on an apprenticeship in these institutions.

Brent, Harrow, Redbridge and Sutton had the highest percentage of young people recorded as being in sustained education in the year after they took their KS4, at 91%.

Knowsley had the lowest percentage of young people recorded as being in sustained education, at 75%.

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

Regions

Proportion going to a higher education institution

Region Percentage
Greater London 61
North West 56
North East 55
West Midlands 53
East Midlands 53
Yorkshire and Humber 53
East of England 50
South East 46
South West 41

Proportion going to a Russell Group university (including Oxbridge)

Region Percentage
North West 12
Yorkshire and Humber 10
East Midlands 9
Greater London 9
South East 9
West Midlands 9
East of England 8
North East 8
South West 7

Local authorities

Top 10 LAs - highest proportion going to a higher education institution

Local Authority Percentage
Redbridge 72
Brent 71
Tower Hamlets 70
Ealing 68
Merton 67
Luton 67
Hounslow 66
Sutton 65
Waltham Forest 65
Islington 65

Top 10 LAs - highest proportion going to a Russell Group university (including Oxbridge)

Local Authority Percentage
Reading 28
Trafford 23
Sutton 23
Buckinghamshire 18
Barnet 18
Wirral 17
Liverpool 16
Kensington and Chelsea 16
Wigan 15
Brent 15
Bournemouth 15
Merton 15

Top 10 LAs - highest proportion going to Oxbridge

Local Authority Percentage
Reading 7
Sutton 3
Buckinghamshire 2
Bournemouth 2
Torbay 2
Barnet 2
Kingston upon Thames 2
Trafford 2
Enfield 2
Cambridgeshire 2
Kensington and Chelsea 2

Top 10 LAs - highest proportion continuing in sustained education

Local Authority Percentage
Harrow 79
Tower Hamlets 78
Redbridge 78
St Helens 77
Ealing 77
Brent 76
Hounslow 76
Newham 76
Redcar and Cleveland 75
Waltham Forest 75
Luton 75

Schools / colleges

Top 10 all schools/colleges, including selective (s) - highest proportion going to a higher education institution

School Percentage
Ilford County High School, Essex 88 (s)
The Blue Coat School, Liverpool 88 (s)
Herschel Grammar School, Slough 88 (s)
South Camden C’ty School, Camden 87
West Kirby Grammar, Wirral 87 (s)
Foxford School & C’ty Arts, Coventry 86
Norbury Manor Business & Enterprise College for Girls, Surrey 86
Westminster Academy, Westminster 86
Preston Manor High, Lancs 86
Wolverhampton Girls' High, Wolverhampton 86 (s)
  • No pupils at four schools or colleges went to any higher education institution

Top 10 schools/colleges, including selective (s) - highest proportion going to a Russell Group university (including Oxbridge)

School Percentage
Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet 66 (s)
The Blue Coat School, Liverpool 62 (s)
The Tiffin Girls' School, Kingston-upon-Thames 59 (s)
The Henrietta Barnett School, Barnet 58 (s)
King Edward VI Camp Hill for Boys, Birmingham 55 (s)
The Latymer School, Enfield 53 (s)
Altrincham Grammar for Girls, Trafford

52 (s)

King Edward VI Camp Hill for Girls, Birmingham 52 (s)
Watford Grammar for Girls, Herts 52
Colchester Royal Grammar, Essex 50 (s)
Kendrick School, Reading   49 (s)
Reading School, Reading 49 (s)
Wilson's School, Sutton 48 (s)
Watford Grammar for Boys, Herts

48

  • No pupils at 330 schools or colleges went to a Russell Group university

Top 10 schools/colleges, including selective (s) - highest proportion going to Oxbridge

School Percentage
Colchester Royal Grammar, Essex 16 (s)
Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet 15 (s)
Reading School, Reading  14 (s)
Colyton Grammar School, Devon 13 (s)
The Henrietta Barnett School, Barnet 13 (s)
Pate's Grammar School, Gloucestershire 12 (s)
Kendrick School, Reading 12 (s)
Lancaster Royal Grammar, Lancs   12 (s)
The Tiffin Girls' School, Kingston-upon-Thames 11 (s)
Dr Challoner's Grammar, Bucks 11 (s)
The Latymer School, Enfield    10 (s)
Nonsuch High School for Girls, Surrey 10 (s)
Dame Alice Owen's School, Herts 10
  • No pupils at 1,395 schools or colleges went to Oxbridge

Top 10 non-selective schools/colleges - highest proportion going to higher education institutions

School Percentage
South Camden C’ty School, Camden 87
Foxford School & C’ty Arts, Coventry 86
Norbury Manor Business & Enterprise College for Girls, Surrey 86
Westminster Academy, Westminster 86
Preston Manor High School, Lancs 86
Guru Nanak Sikh Secondary, Hillingdon 85
City of London Academy, Southwark 84
Wood Green High School College of Sport, Maths & Computing, Sandwell 84
Audenshaw School, Tameside 83
Sheffield Springs Academy, Sheffield 83
Blessed Robert Johnson Catholic College, Telford and Wrekin 83
Ilford Ursuline High School, Redbridge 83
St Mary's CofE High School, Barnet 83

Top 10 schools/colleges - highest proportion going to a Russell Group university (including Oxbridge) - non selective

School Percentage
Watford Grammar School for Girls, Herts 52
Watford Grammar School for Boys, Herts 48
JFS, Brent  45
King David High School, Liverpool  44
Lady Margaret School, Ham & Fulham 42
Dame Alice Owen's School, Herts 42
The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial, Ken & Chelsea 40
Parmiter's School, Herts 37
St Mary's Catholic High School, Derbyshire 34
The Becket School, Notts 33
Winstanley College, Wigan 33
The Ecclesbourne School, Derbyshire 33

Top 10 schools/colleges - highest proportion going to Oxbridge - non selective

School Percentage
Dame Alice Owen's School, Herts 10
Loreto College, Herts     6
Silverdale School, Sheffield 6
Parmiter's School, Herts 6
Fulford School, York   6
All Hallows Catholic College, Surrey   6
Bury St Edmunds County Upper, Suffolk  6
St Philip Howard Catholic High, W Sussex 5
The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial, Ken & Chelsea 5
Watford Grammar School for Girls, Herts 5
Lady Margaret School, Ham and Fulham 5
Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge 5
Bridgewater High School, Salford    5
Wood Green School, Oxon    5
The St Marylebone CofE, Westminster 5
Durham Johnston Comprehensive, Durham 5
High Storrs School, Sheffield 5
The Ashcombe School, Surrey    5
St Laurence School, Wilts       5
St Mary's Catholic Comp, Menston, Leeds 5

Key Stage 4

Top 10 LAs - highest proportion continuing in sustained education

Local authority Percentage
 Harrow  91
 Sutton  91
 Redbridge  91
 Brent  91
 Ealing  90
 Kingston upon Thames  90
 Slough  90
 Kensington and Chelsea  90
 Hounslow  90
 Luton  89
 North Somerset  89
 Waltham Forest  89

Notes to editors

  • This is the first publication on “education destination measures” and is classified as experimental statistics as the data are still being evaluated and remain subject to further testing in terms of their reliability and ability to meet customer needs.

  • This SFR reports on young people in key stage 4 (KS4) and key stage 5 (KS5) in the 2008 to 2009 academic year and identifies their education destinations in the 2009 and 2010 academic year.

Key stage 4

The 2008 to 2009 academic year 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 academic year 2008 to 2009 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 English maintained mainstream schools only.

Key stage 5

The 2008 to 2009 academic year 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 equivalent qualifications during the 2008 to 2009 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 maintained 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 2009 to 2010 and these are the most recent data to have been matched. This publication is therefore reporting on 2008 to 2009 KS4 and KS5 (A level or equivalent qualification/s) students who went on to education destinations in the academic year 2009 to 2010.

  • The Russell Group, as at June 2009, 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.

DfE enquiries

Central newsdesk - for journalists 020 7783 8300

General enquiries - for members of the public 0370 000 2288

Website: www.education.gov.uk/help/contactus

Published 17 July 2012