Trends In Education and Skills

This area of the web site is recommended as a starting point for anyone wishing to obtain statistical information on the subject of education.

It offers easy access to a range of statistical evidence across the whole of the education spectrum, from the early years through to adult learning.

Educational themes
Information is grouped into five educational themes: context, expenditure, schools, post-16 learning and attainment and outcomes.

Each consists of a number of indicators representing important issues within each theme.

Indicators consist of a brief summary; some charts or graphs, with bullet points to describe the main statistics and trends; some background information to aid understanding; a list of source publications for further reading, and at least one contact where more detailed information can be obtained.

Charts are accompanied by a link to the underlying data in the form of printable Excel tables.

Conventions adopted
Depending on the availability of data, most of the information presented refers to England only.

The length of trends also depends on the amount of data available. Most figures shown will have been rounded and so there may be discrepancies between the sum of constituent items and the totals shown.

Throughout the site, the symbol "/" is used to denote academic years (eg 2006/2007) and the symbol "-" is used to denote financial years (eg 2006-07) "N/A" is used to denote "not applicable".

International comparisons developed by international organisations such as the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), are usually only available for the United Kingdom as a whole and are often less up-to-date than England figures.

The majority of contacts quoted work in the Strategic Analysis and Data Services Group Directorate within the Department for Children, Schools and Families. They are responsible for economic and statistical analysis and advice.