Uptake of GCE A level subjects 2024 - Statistics Report Series No. 147 - Analysis of A level subject uptake

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by James

Uptake of GCE A level subjects in England in 2024 is analyzed using publicly available Key Stage 5 results covering students who entered for at least one AS or A level. A level uptake is defined as the number or percentage of students taking each subject at the end of Key Stage 5. Schools are included only when candidate counts support calculating uptake, with confidentiality suppression applied for small values. Results present uptake patterns by school classifications including type, attainment, deprivation level, and sex composition, supported by distribution tables.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Data source and inclusion criteria

Results

School type

School attainment

School deprivation level

School sex composition

Uptake of GCEA level subjects 2024 Statistics Report Series No. 147 Tim Gill 22 September 2025 Author contact details: Tim Gill Assessment Research and Development Research Division Shaftesbury Road Cambridge CB2 8EA UK [tim.gill@cambridge.org](tim.gill@cambridge.org)[ ](tim.gill@cambridge.org)[https://www.cambridge.org](https://www.cambridge.org) As a department of the university, Cambridge University Press & Assessment is respected and trusted worldwide, managing three world-class examination boards, and maintaining the highest standards in educational assessment and learning. We are a not-for-profit organisation. Cambridge University Press & Assessment is committed to making our documents accessible in accordance with the WCAG 2 . 1 Standard. We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of our documents. If you find any problems or you think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact our team: Research Division If you need this document in a different format contact us telling us your name, email address and requirements and we will respond within 15 working days. How to cite this publication Gill, T. (2025) . Uptake of GCE A level subjects 2024 . Statistics Report Series No. 147. Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Introduction This report is focused on the uptake of A level subjects in England in 2024 . Uptake in an A level subject is defined as the number or percentage of students at the end of Key Stage 5 (who have entered for at least one AS or A level) taking the subject. This report was produced using publicly available data from the Department for Education’s (DfE)“Find and compare schools in England” service 1 . The dataset consisted of Key Stage 5 (KS5) results of all subjects provided by each school in England. Other school information, such as schools’ sex composition, admissions policy, and the number of disadvantaged pupils at the end of KS5, was also available. Only schools that had at least one student who sat for at least one A level subject in the 2023/2024 academic year2 were included. In this report, A level uptake is presented by the following school classifications: school type, school attainment, school deprivation level, and school sex composition. Results Tables 1 to 4 present the distribution of schools within each of the different school classifications. The total number of schools is not identical in each table, due to small amounts of missing or suppressed data within each classification. In certain circumstances, DfE suppressed some school data values to protect confidentiality and minimise identification risks. This usually happens when the measure covers only five or fewer students3. School type A levels are taught at several different types of school. Schools were assigned a school type based on their admissions policy and institution type as recorded in the dataset. In this report, schools and colleges were classified into ten different school types: Academy (non-selective in highly-selective area (HSA)), Academy (other non-selective), Academy (selective), Academy (sixth form), Further Education (FE) College, Independent school, Sixth form college, Non-selective in HSA, Other non-selective, and Selective. Other nonmaintained schools, such as special schools, were excluded. Table 1 presents the number and percentage of students and schools in each school type. 1 This can be accessed here: [https://www.find-school-performance-data.service.gov.uk/](https://www.find-school-performance-data.service.gov.uk/) 2 The dataset also included information on some results from earlier academic years. If a school only had results achieved between January 2022 and August 2023, they were not included in this report, as no A level candidate count was published for these schools; hence, it was not possible to calculate the uptake percentages. 3 The applied suppression rule was explained in the “abbreviations” file that accompanied the d

FAQs

How is A level uptake defined in this report?

Uptake of an A level subject is defined as the number or percentage of students at the end of Key Stage 5 who have entered for at least one AS or A level and are taking the subject.

What data source is used to produce the results?

The report is produced using publicly available Key Stage 5 data from the Department for Education’s “Find and compare schools in England” service.

How are schools selected and why can some values be suppressed?

Only schools with at least one student who sat for at least one A level subject in the 2023/2024 academic year are included. Some school data values are suppressed to protect confidentiality, typically when measures cover five or fewer students.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by James