This has been another uniquely challenging year for a cohort of young people still affected by the continuing ramifications of the Covid pandemic as well as staffing difficulties in their schools and the cost-of-living crisis. The Association congratulates all students who have now received their A-Level, AS-Level, Scottish Highers and Nationals, and BTec or equivalent vocational or technical Level 3 qualifications, and recognises the efforts of our community of educators – science teachers, leaders and technicians – in supporting and preparing their students for their assessments. We wish all students receiving their science examination grades this month the very best as they embark on the next stage of their education, training, or careers. The opportunities for rewarding careers within STEM or using STEM are, of course, many and varied.

Media reporting has focused on the return to pre-pandemic (2019) grading levels (for England, and Scotland, and to a lesser extent for Wales and N. Ireland) as determined and overseen by the government and Ofqual. Reports also focus on the growing and worrying disparity between students’ examination success in different parts of England. For instance, differences between students in wealthier London and the Southeast and those in the Northeast and Yorkshire & the Humber regions of high deprivation obtaining grade A and above at A Level - in what appears to result from differing impacts of the pandemic on different groups of young people. A similar picture is emerging for Scotland. Initial analyses by the Sutton Trust and Education Policy Institute are insightful and we look forward to further insights from Ofqual’s equalities analysis in the autumn. This analysis includes students taking GCSEs, A levels and some vocational and technical qualifications and the following student characteristics: prior attainment, ethnicity, gender, SEND status, free school meal eligibility, socio-economic status (using the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index), region, and the type of school or college (GCSE and A level only).

All three sciences remain in the top ten for student entries with both biology and chemistry recording rises compared to 2019, whilst physics entry numbers show a troubling decline. It is encouraging to see a significant increase in the numbers of student entries for computer science. There are greater numbers of female students taking both biology and chemistry then male students whilst the reverse is true for physics - addressing gender imbalance for physics remains a challenge.

There are regional disparities for science too, at county level, which differ a little from the national picture in England. For instance, the percentage of grades at A or above for several counties in the Midlands were well below the national average of 25.9% in biology and 31.1% in chemistry and 30.8% for physics.

We will continue to support secondary schools to address barriers to inclusion – for instance through our Department for Education funded Inclusion in Science CPD programme in England, and to reflect on the disparities on attainment by students from different backgrounds across the UK.

Inclusion in Science programme https://www.ase.org.uk/inclusion-in-schools-recruitment