The National Youth Agency - Enjoying and achieving

Enjoying and achieving

Education - attainment

Parental and family circumstances have an impact upon GCSE attainment. In 2004, in England and Wales, three quarters (76%) of pupils whose parents were in higher professional occupations achieved five or more GCSEs grades A* to C (or the equivalent) compared with only a third (33%) of those whose parents were in routine occupations.

Also of interest...

In 2006, 96.6% of 16-18 year-olds who took A-levels received a pass, with nearly a quarter (24.1%) achieving A grades.

(Source: Department for Children, Schools and Families).

In 2006, nearly two-thirds (63%) of young women aged 14 to 15, and half (51%) of young men wanted to continue with full-time education.

(Source: Young People into 2007, Schools Health Education Unit, 2007)

In 2006, 62.4% of 15-year-olds achieved a GCSE A*-C pass. 61.6% received an A*-C pass in English and 54.3% an A*-C pass in maths.

(Source: Department for Children, Schools and Families)

In January 2007 some 229,100 (or 2.8%) pupils across all schools in England had statements of Special Educational Needs (SEN), compared to over 278,300 in 2005-6. In secondary schools 22 in every 1,000 pupils of White ethnic origin had statements. These figures were similar to those for Black and Mixed pupils.

(Source: Special Educational Needs in England: January 2007 - DEpartment for Education and Skills, 2007).

Education - religion and ethnicity

According to the 2001 census, there were 371,000 school-aged (5 to 16 year old) Muslim children in England, compared with 64,000 school-aged Sikh children and 33,000 Jewish school-aged children.

(Source: National Statistics, Focus on Religion)

Young people from minority ethnic communities comprise 17% of the total number of children attending secondary schools.

(Source: A lot done, a lot to do. Commission for Racial Equality, 2007).

In 2004, over two-thirds (67 %) of Indian, almost half (48%) of Bangladeshi and 45% of Pakistani pupils gained five or more grades A* to C at GCSE (or equivalent), compared with half (52%) of White British pupils. Black Caribbean pupils (36%) and Black African pupils (43%) had the lowest levels of obtaining five passes.

(Source: Social Trends, No. 36, 2006)

31% of young British Muslims leave school with no qualifications compared to 15% of the total population.

In 2004, a third (33%) of Muslims of working age in Britain had no qualifications - the highest proportion for any religious group. They were also least likely to have degrees or equivalent qualifications (12%). After Muslims, Sikhs are the next most likely to have no qualifications (20%). 17% of Buddhists and a similar proportion of Christians (15%), Hindus (15%) and people with no religion (14%) had no qualifications. Jewish people were the least likely to have no qualifications (7%).

(Source: National Statistics, Focus on Religion 2006)

Truancy and exclusion

In 2005-6, 9,600 children were permanently excluded from schools in Britain.

(Source: Social Trends, No. 38, 2008)

In 2006-7, the number of permanent exclusions had fallen to 8,680 (or 7%) cases in all maintained primary, secondary and special schools, a drop of 29% since 1997-98. The number of fixed period exclusions in secondary schools rose by 4% to 363,270.

Boys account for nearly four-fifths of all permanent exclusions, with pupils aged 12-14 most likely to be excluded. The most common reasons for permanent exclusions were persistent disruptive behaviour (2,700 or 31% of all permanent exclusions), physical assaults against a pupil (1,350 or 16%) and verbal abuse or threatening behaviour against an adult (900 or 10%).

(Source: Permanent and Fixed Period Exclusions from Schools and Exclusion Appeals in England, 2006/07 - Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2008).

National Truancy sweeps are carried out by partnerships of Police Officers and Education Welfare Officers. Under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the police have powers to pick up (but not arrest) children playing truant and take them to a designated area or, sometimes, back to school.

126 out of 150 Local Education Authorities participated in national truancy sweeps held between 13 November and 1 December 2006.

About 1,100 truancy sweeps stopped 11,713 children:

of whom nearly 5,000 did not have a valid reason for not being at school;
of those with no valid reason almost a quarter (23%)were primary school children and three quarters (77%) were from secondary schools;
37% of the truants were accompanied by an adult and
60% of truants were male compared to 40% who were female

(Source: Department for Children, Schools and Families website)

DfES figures break down reasons for absence. The percentages of half days missed due to absence in all schools in England for 2005-6 were:

Authorised absences 6.82%
Unauthorised absences 1.42%
Total absences 8.24%

(Source: Department for Children, Schools and Families website)

Only 6% of young people leave care with 5 GCSEs or more, compared with over half (53%) of their peers outside the care system.

(Source: Working with Children 2006-7, NCH/SocietyGuardian, 2005)

Under half, (43%) of children aged 16 or over who left care 2005-6 attained one or more GCSE/GNVQ, an increase of 2 per cent on the previous year. Over half (59%) of care leavers were in education, training or employment in 2004-5, up from 55% in 2003-4.

(Source Department for Children, Schools and Families website)

Sport and cultural opportunities

In 2006, almost three-quarters (74%) of 11-to-15-year-olds had attended an arts event. 91% had particiated in an arts activity, 55% had visited a museum or gallery, and 72% had visited an historic environment site.

(Source: Commons written answer 01/04/08 (taken from the Taking Part survey 2006).

In 2007, over half (61%) of all households had an internet connection.

In 2007, young people aged 16 to 24 were more likely than any other age group to play or download games, images, films or music and look for information about education.

(Source: Social Trends, No. 38, 2008)

According to a survey of Britain's communications market by Ofcom, young people aged 18 to 24 spend an average of 37.9 hours a month online. 12-17-year-olds spend an average of 24.9 hours per month online. Almost one in six 13-to-15-year-olds have their own webcam. The proportion of young people aged 8 to 15 who listen to the radio has halved to 20% over the last two years.

(Source: Ofcom, 2007)