We show the proportion of each cohort that leave the state-funded mainstream school system each term, be it to go to a different type of school, as result of migration, or as a result of a move into elective home education. In some cases, pupils leave the cohort and then return. In such cases, we would only count pupils as leavers in the terms in which they were not enrolled at a state-funded mainstream school[2].
By the Spring of Year 11, around 7% of the 2019 and 2023 cohorts had left the state-funded mainstream school system.
This figure was slightly asia rcs data lower (6.6%) for the 2021 cohort. School performance data was not published for this cohort due to the cancellation of exams. We see that the proportion of leavers in this cohort was very similar to that of 2023 until the Spring of Year 10. For the 2021 cohort, this was just prior to the first national lockdown in 2020.
Compared to the 2019 cohort, the rate of leaving was lower among the 2023 cohort between Year 7 and the Summer of Year 10. However, the leaving rate was much sharper thereafter among the 2019 cohort, the result being an overall similar rate of leaving.
Transfers to other mainstream schools after Year 7
So far we’ve just looked at one aspect of outward pupil mobility, namely pupils leaving the state-funded mainstream sector altogether.