What would you like researching

[stubiff]

I like to research things, particularly numbers, data, or something that can be turned into a graph.

If you’d like something researching that is to do with Secondary/GCSE options/GCSEs/A-levels, and both interests me and has some wider community benefit, then please post, and I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks.

Just bumping because this sounds like an excellent idea and kind offer, though I have nothing to suggest right now.

Thanks Flume, but don’t want to create too much work for myself!

Will make a suggestion if people think it's worthwhile:

Are Independents, academically, worth it?

Purely looking at academic progress here. Not, would they make DC a 'better' person (whatever that may mean to you).

"Are Independents, academically, worth it?"

I don't think that one will be possible, because of lack of starting baseline, from which to show progress

@AnotherNewt, there is an analysis/report I know of which has done this, comparing Independent and State post KS2.
There is also a study working backwards from degree classification (which infers a 'difference').

I’d like to know if able kids really do do well anywhere. (It’s often cited as a given on MN)
No- actually that’s not right. What I specifically want to know is if they (on the whole) still get excellent gcse results even in the worst performing schools .
(ie: achieving in line with what they should have based on ks2 results)

I’m not even sure if what I’ve written makes any sense now

@Beesandtrees, yes, understand.
Would a high performing DC get the same attainment regardless of the general level of school attainment?
There is data (for State schools) which gives attainment for different 'prior attainment' groups which I could look at.

That’s it
Thanks

I'm curious about handedness.

The extent to which handedness correlates to A level / university / career choices. E.g. do more left handed people than the national average choose STEM / music / art

Also handedness and ethnicity / language: If your native language is written right to left instead of left to right, are you more likely to be left handed?

Ooh that’s interesting Mitzi

In my first year at university studying maths, 50% of my lecturers were lefthanded.

I know there's been stats on this before, but it would be good to see updated stats on autumn/summer borns & GCSE results and/or extent to which a primary groups by attainment and KS2 SATs / GCSE results.

i.e. to answer:
'Do summer borns get worse GCSE results than autumn borns?'
and
'Do rigid attainment groups early on positively/negatively impact progress / confidence of younger children such that the impact is measurable at the end of Primary or even at GCSE?'

What data do you have access to?

@noblegiraffe, only that available on the internet.

What I'm happy (?!) to do, though, is trawl through and gather (and point to) relevant data which may answer a question, either way.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will start with:
Would a high performing DC get the same GCSE attainment regardless of the general level of school attainment?

Are Independents, academically, worth it?"

I don't think that one will be possible, because of lack of starting baseline, from which to show progress

Never heard of MidYIS?

@CraftyGin, I'd guess the average person has probably never heard of MidYIS.

I don't work in a school/education, but only know of it whilst looking for Educational data.

Well you have now.

Made the mistake of answering fot someone else there!

Shed some more light on it then Crafty.

You should do business intelligence, OP!!

I’d be really interested in anything which showed correlation (or not) between wellbeing / mental health and type of school. I’ve often seen it said that there are more mental health problems in grammars and selective indies - is this true?

And I’d also like to see the evidence for the statement that all / most / ?90% of children do better in mixed ability classes. I’ve always thought (purely based on gut feel) that there must be some at both ends of the ability range that this isn’t true for (at secondary level) but I’ve never seen it quantified, and it would be fascinating.

@ragged, if I was starting my career again I'd probably do BI !

I would like to know if learning a musical instrument accelerates a child's attainment. Or is it a fallacy?

I’d like to know if children with additional/multiple languages have higher attainment at end of KS2/GCSE

Thanks for the kind offer. We hear that private school acceptance rates at Oxbridge are disproportionate relative to the proportion of privately-educated pupils in the population. But how disproportionate are the rates relative to the number of top grades achieved by private pupils?