From previous experience of looking for statistics on Government websites it's never all that straightforward and you end up trawling through umpteen tabs in umpteen spreadsheets before finding the data formatted in the way you want it. In fact I actually created a website to help me remember how I'd managed to find stats information about diabetes when I worked as a Science Info Officer at Diabetes UK.
A press release1 from Next Generation Skills had a useful table for the numbers of pupils taking A-level Computer Science in London. It seems that 376 London pupils took an A-level in Computer Science in 2012 with 42 in Lewisham and none in Camden.
This data2 comes from data tables hosted at the GOV.UK website, from the Department of Education. Dishearteningly there are lots of 'tables and additional tables', eight in fact, perhaps I shouldn't be so defeatist about spreadsheets ;)
I think the info I'm after, for A-levels, is in Table 12a (Number of GCE A level entries by state-funded students aged 16 to 18 by subject and local authority) which can be found in 'Additional Tables 3: SFR05/2013' or sfr05-2013t12abc.xls but where should I go looking for the GCSE stuff?
According to ‘How teachers are preparing for the new computer science GCSE’ in The Guardian (published 13 September 2012) the AQA launched their GCSE in Computing in the previous week (~7 September 2012).
These are the courses I'm aware of...
- OCR - J275 Computing from 2012
- OCR - J275 Computing from 2010
- OCR - Results statistics
- AQA computing related subjects
- AQA - GCSE - Computer Science (4512)
- AQA - GCSE - Information and Communication Technology (4520)
- AQA - A-level - Computing (2510)
- AQA - A-level - Information and Communication Technology (2520)
- AQA - A-level - Applied Information and Communication Techology (8750)
Other useful links I need to investigate
- http://ofqual.gov.uk/standards/statistics/
- http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics
- http://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/about-results/results-statistics
- GCSE and equivalent attainment by pupil characteristics in England: 2011 to 2012 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gcse-and-equivalent-attainment-by-pupil-characteristics-in-england
- Revised A level and equivalent examination results in England: academic year 2011 to 2012 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/revised-a-level-and-equivalent-examination-results-in-england-academic-year-2011-to-2012
- Topic guide to: School and College Skills and Qualificationshttp://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/children-education-skills/school-and-college-education/school-and-college-skills-and-qualifications
See also the pictures in these tweets, from @NextGenSkills
Provisional DfE stats show slide in Computing since 1996 only 3400 entries last year #nextgenskills pic.twitter.com/c0seuGoeob
— NextGenSkills (@NextGenSkills) October 21, 2013
DfE provisional stats on girls taking CS since 1996: only 211 entries in 2013 #nextgenskills pic.twitter.com/YuTWe6TN3b @ladygeek
— NextGenSkills (@NextGenSkills) October 18, 2013
References
1 Low take up Computing across country and London hurts hi-tech growth, says Next Gen Skills (13 January 2013): http://www.nextgenskills.com/computing-a-level-entries-fall-again-worries-for-hi-tech-talent-in-england-and-london/
2 Statistics - national statistics: Revised A level and equivalent examination results in England: academic year 2011 to 2012 (Published 24 January 2013)
Collections: Statistics: 16 to 19 attainment and Statistics: A/AS levels (key stage 5)
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