Young learners in England are facing a deepening crisis. Our Annual Report shows that disadvantaged five-year-olds are falling further behind their peers — for children with SEND, the learning gap has widened to over 20 months, the widest gap on record 🧵.

"We do need to start looking at what's driving the decline in girls attainment before it gets too late." . EPI's @natalieperera1 spoke to the BBC about the urgent need to tackle the gender gap, following this year’s Level 2 results:

EPI is hiring a quantitative researcher to join our Vulnerable Learners & Post-16 team. This is a chance to shape evidence-based education policy and have a real impact on young people’s lives. Applications close next week. Apply here:

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Today’s results also show that regional disparities persist, though there has been a slight narrowing of the gap. For example, 71.6 per cent of entries in London were awarded a grade 4 or above, compared with just 62.9 per cent in the West Midlands.

In mathematics, performance at both grade 4 and above and grade 7 and above remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Results released today by Ofqual suggest that outcomes in English, which had been in decline, have increased at grade 4 and above, grade 5 and above, and grade 7 and above, and are now broadly in line with pre-pandemic levels.

Almost all subjects have similar grade distributions to last year. The largest increases at grade 4 or above amongst larger GCSE subjects (> 10,000 entries) were in German (up 2.2 percentage points), food preparation and nutrition, and French (both up 1.7 percentage points).

Girls continue to achieve higher results than boys in the vast majority of subjects, though the size of the advantage varies. In 2025, the only subjects where boys consistently outperformed girls at both grade 4 and grade 7 were maths, physics, economics and statistics.

In 2025, 73.6 per cent of entries from girls achieved a grade 4 or above compared with 67.5 per cent of entries from boys. This gap has narrowed further since 2024 and has been closing steadily since 2019.

Overall, amongst 16-year-olds in England, 70.5 per cent of all awards were at grade 4 or above, just 0.2 percentage points higher than in 2024.

Following today’s publication of Level 2 results across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, EPI has released its analysis of the key trends. Here are the headline takeaways 🧵

What should we be looking out for tomorrow as GCSE results are published?. EPI’s @mrjpandrews sets the scene and highlights the key trends to keep an eye on as results and analysis roll in. Read the full blog:

ICYMI: last week EPI published analysis of the latest pupil absence stats: overall absence rates are falling; absence gaps are narrowing for disadvantaged pupils but widening for those with SEND; absence is rising among the youngest. Full analysis here:

“We can’t ignore the fact that one of the main drivers is the higher and more persistent poverty in some areas.”. EPI Chief Executive @natalieperera1 spoke to @guardian about inequalities in educational attainment following A-level results day.

RT @FEWeek: T level retention is improving, but not fast enough, says Robbie Maris of @EduPolicyInst .Too many students – especially the mo….

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The university application rate for students in London was considerably higher than in all other English regions, although this gap has narrowed slightly since last year. The North East is the only English region where the application rate in 2025 was lower than in 2019.

The number of university applications from 18-year-olds in England increased this year due to population growth, but the proportion of 18-year-olds applying has decreased for the third year in a row.

Female students were more likely to achieve grade C and above, but this lead has narrowed to 3.5 percentage points in 2025, from 4.3 percentage points in 2024.

The gender gap in the proportion obtaining top A level grades has reversed this year, meaning male students received marginally more top grades than females. This is the first time since 2019 that this has been the case under usual grading arrangements.