Regular readers might be aware that before I joined Datalab, I was at the Institute of Physics. And one of our most quoted stats back then – taken from the It’s Different for Girls report – was that 49% of state-funded mixed sex schools send no girls at all on to do A-Level physics.
That report was published more years ago canada rcs data than I care to remember, so I thought it would be interesting to update that statistic, and to take a look at the situation for some other subjects. So in this post, I’ll be looking into the proportion of state-funded mainstream schools that send no pupils on to take A-Levels in the EBacc subjects, and in social sciences and the arts, broken down by gender.
Data
I’ll be using data from the Key Stage 4 pupil table and the Key Stage 5 exam table from the National Pupil Database. I include pupils who completed Key Stage 4 in 2021 in a state-funded mainstream school, and who went on to complete Key Stage 5 in 2023. A school will be deemed to have ‘sent a pupil on’ to study a subject if the pupil completed KS4 in that school in 2021, and then went on to take an A-Level in the subject in 2023 in any institution.