Key stage 4
Key stage 4 is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs in maintained schools. This period is normally known as Year 10 and Year 11, when pupils are aged between 14 and 16 years. Since the last full update of this article the Covid-19 pandemic severely disrupted school examinations. Also a new secondary school GCSE accountability system had been implemented in 2016.
Quick definitions and glossary: Attainment 8 = Average score of pupils* at end of Key Stage 4 in ≤ 8 subjects, usually at GCSE level (* in a local authority area or at a school)
Progress 8 = a measure of the progress made by pupils between the Key Stage 2 SATs and Key Stage 4 Attainment 8 (a period of 5 years)
FSM = Free School Meals SEN = Special Educational Needs SATs = Standard Assessment Tests
A new secondary school GCSE accountability system had been implemented in 2016. Some of the headline accountability measures for KS4 are as follows:
- Attainment 8 measures the average achievement of pupils in up to 8 qualifications including English (double weighted), maths (double weighted), three further qualifications that count in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) and three further qualifications that can be GCSE qualifications (including EBacc subjects) or any other non-GCSE qualifications on the Department for Education (DfE) approved list.
- Progress 8 aims to capture the progress a pupil makes from the end of key stage 2 to the end of key stage 4. It compares pupils’ achievement – their Attainment 8 score – with the average Attainment 8 score of all pupils nationally who had a similar starting point (or ‘prior attainment’), calculated using assessment results from the end of primary school. A Progress 8 score of above 0 means a school is making above average progress.
Key results for the academic year 2022/23
- The average Attainment 8 score per pupil for the Lancashire-12 area (45.0) was higher than the England (44.7), North West (44.6) and Blackpool (34.9) scores and was the same as Blackburn with Darwen (45.0).
- The average Progress 8 score per pupil for Lancashire-12 (-0.17) was higher than the North West (-0.20) and Blackpool (-0.85) score. Lancashire-12 pupils and most of the comparator areas are all making below average progress.
- Analysis of the results for the districts within the Lancashire-12 area shows that the attainment of pupils at the end of key stage 4 was mainly higher in areas with low levels of deprivation
- The average attainment 8 scores of pupils on free school meals (FSM) at the end of key stage 4 in the Lancashire-12 area (32.4) was lower that of non-FSM pupils (48.4)
- The average attainment 8 scores of girls at the end of key stage 4 in the Lancashire-12 area (47.4) was higher than that of boys (42.7).
- For the Lancashire-12 area, the attainment gap between SEND pupils and non-SEND pupils remains. The average 'Attainment 8' score for SEND pupils (10.6) is significantly lower than non-SEND pupils (47.9) in the Lancashire-12 area - an average score gap of 37.3.
Interactive report
Source: Department for Education Data files: 2223_la_char_data_revised.csv & 2223_pr_lad_data_revised.csv. Breakdowns by FSM, SEN and gender are from 2223_la_char_data_revised.csv and do not go down to district level. The overall Attainment 8 and Progress 8 scores for Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool are in both files and are different, so for these unitary authorities we have used the figures from 2223_lachar_data_revised.csv throughout.
Key findings for the Lancashire-14 area
Finalised data for GCSE's suggests during 2022/23, the average Attainment 8 score per pupil for Lancashire (45.0) was the same as Blackburn with Darwen (45.0) and higher than the England (44.7), North West (44.6), and Blackpool (34.9%) scores.
The average Progress 8 score per pupil for Lancashire-12 (-0.17) was higher than the Blackpool (-0.85) and North West (-0.20) scores but lower than those of Blackburn with Darwen and England (both -0.06). Lancashire-12 pupils and most of the comparator areas are all making below average progress. Blackburn with Darwen (-0.06) pupils are making average progress.
Analysis of the results by Lancashire-12 districts shows that the attainment of pupils at the end of key stage 4 was mainly higher in areas with low levels of deprivation. The average Attainment 8 scores for pupils in Ribble Valley (50.1), Chorley (48.1), Preston (47.6) and South Ribble (46.6) were higher than Lancashire-12, North West and England averages. Attainment in areas with higher levels of deprivation was lower and was particularly low in Burnley (40.0), Pendle (40.7) and Hyndburn (40.9).
Figure 2 shows the Progress 8 scores for districts as well as upper-tier authorities, with confidence intervals. From these we see that Chorley, Ribble-Valley, South Ribble and Blackburn with Darwen were not significantly different from the target score of 0. Preston was significantly above, while Lancashire-12, the remaining districts and comparators were significantly below.
Attainment and free school meals
It has been noted previously that educational attainment at district level is linked to deprivation. However, deprivation isn’t limited by district council boundaries. Many pupils will encounter deprivation despite living in districts with low levels of deprivation overall and this can impact on their prospects. Historically the results at KS4 reveals a significant difference in attainment levels between those pupils who are eligible for free school meals (FSM) and those who are not.
During 2022/23, the average attainment 8 scores of FSM pupils at the end of key stage 4 Lancashire-12 (32.4) was lower than that of non-FSM pupils (48.4). In fact, the Lancashire-12 FSM pupil's average score was lower when compared with the England (34.9). The average score of Lancashire -12 was higher than Blackpool (26.4) but lower than the North West (33.3) and Blackburn with Darwen (34.2).
The percentage gap between FSM and non-FSM was wider for Lancashire-12 (+16.0) than each of the other comparator groups. The Lancashire-12 non-FSM pupil performance (48.4) was higher than Blackpool (41.2) but was the same as Blackburn with Darwen (48.4) and lower than North West (48.5) and England (49.8).
Attainment and gender
As at other key stages, girls tend to perform better than boys in GCSE examinations. The average attainment 8 scores of girls at the end of key stage 4 in Lancashire-12 (47.4) was higher than that of boys (42.7). The performance of Lancashire-12 boys was similar to the comparators and above Blackpool (33.3).
Attainment and special educational needs
There is a large gap between the attainment of pupils with statements of special educational needs (SEN) or education, health and care plan (EHC) and non-SEND (Special Educational Need and Disability) pupils. In 2022/23 at KS4, the attainment gap remained large within Lancashire-12 with the average attainment 8 score of SEND pupils (26.5) significantly lower than non-SEND pupils (47.9), with an average score gap of 21.4. The performance of Lancashire-12 SEND pupils is above the neighbouring unitary comparators but below National (28.1) and NW (26.9) as highlighted in Table 5.
Attainment and children looked after
The educational attainment of children looked after is much lower than that of their peers. There are a number of factors that contribute to this. For example, there tends to be a higher prevalence of children with statements of special educational needs in the looked after population (around 30% in the looked after population nationally compared to around 3% in the general school age population). Another factor is that many of these children may have come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and as shown previously, attainment has strong links to deprivation. In 2022/23, at KS4 the average attainment 8 score of Lancashire-12 CLA pupils was 20.1. This was higher than each of the comparator group's performance. Lancashire-12 were placed in the 3nd quartile nationally and ranked 68 out of 151 Authorities.
Table 6: GCSE attainment of CLA pupils, average attainment 8 scores 2022/23
| Area | Lancashire-12 | Blackburn with Darwen | Blackpool | North West | England |
| Average attainment 8 score | 20.1 | 18.7 | 16.8 | 19.4 | 19.4 |
The Department for Education website provides statistics on key stage 4 results for recent years.
Page updated 31 May 2024