The 16 – 19 theme focuses on improving outcomes for learners aged 16 – 19 across schools with sixth forms, sixth form colleges, further education (FE) colleges and other providers. This phase of education presents unique challenges, including low GCSE resit pass rates, attendance, data access and comparability, and complex transitions from school to college. These challenges are particularly acute for socio-economically disadvantaged learners, who often face additional barriers to success.
Why it matters to our mission
The EEF’s mission to close the disadvantage gap is highly relevant in the 16 – 19 context. The socio-economic attainment gap widens as learners progress through the education system. By the end of secondary school, disadvantaged pupils are on average 18.8 months behind their peers. This gap is even wider for persistently disadvantaged pupils (those eligible for free school meals for at least 80% of their time at school), who are almost two years (22.7 months) behind their peers by the end of secondary school. This stage of education is therefore a ‘last chance’ to try and minimise the attainment gap before most young people leave the education system. Learners at this stage face persistent challenges including low attainment and limited access to targeted support. While the evidence base remains underdeveloped, early findings and external research suggest that effective interventions at this stage may improve educational and life outcomes.
The evidence base for 16 – 19 education is growing but remains underdeveloped compared to earlier phases. While the EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit includes around 170 studies involving 16 – 19-year-olds, these have not previously been synthesised to draw conclusions. Work is currently underway at the EEF to understand the strength of this evidence, and the conclusions that can be drawn from it to support the sector.
Key gaps in the 16 – 19 evidence base include:
- limited robust evaluations of GCSE resit interventions, especially for English;
- sparse evidence on effective transition programmes from school to college;
- a lack of national attendance data for 16 – 19 settings; and
- emerging but untested use of artificial intelligence (AI) and EdTech tools in FE settings.
The EEF’s 2023 evidence and practice review highlighted the importance of integrating academic and socio-emotional support for 16 – 19 learners, particularly those retaking GCSEs. It also identified the need for better data sharing between schools and colleges to support smoother transitions.
| EEF Toolkit | The Teaching and Learning Toolkit includes around 170 studies involving 16 – 19 learners. Synthesis work is underway to extract these studies and identify if conclusions can be drawn about each strategy’s effectiveness with 16 – 19 learners. |
| Practice and Evidence Reviews | A 2023 review explored challenges in 16 – 19 education, including transition, attendance, and GCSE resits. A practice review on professional development in 16 – 19 settings has been completed, and has informed the EEF’s first guidance report for the sector, which is due to be released in Autumn 2025. |
| Sector Engagement | College visits and stakeholder engagement (for example, with the Association of Colleges, the Sixth Form Colleges Association, the Education and Training Foundation, and the Department for Education) are helping to shape commissioning priorities, as well as a consultative roundtable of senior leaders in colleges and the wider sector. A practitioner forum formed from a range of 16 – 19 settings supports in gathering insights into the sector. The EEF ran its first 16 – 19 conference in July 2025 focussing on effective professional development. |
| Evidence into Action | A 16 – 19 evidence partnership between the EEF and six colleges will launch in September 2025. The partnership will play a key role in supporting the sector with accessing and using high-quality research evidence. |
In February 2023, the EEF commissioned its first dedicated 16 – 19 funding round as part of its new wider remit. This round aimed to improve outcomes for learners retaking GCSE English and maths, with a particular emphasis on integrating socio-emotional support alongside academic approaches. In Autumn 2024, the EEF launched the Setting Choices round, which looked at exploring transition from school to college, attendance, and GCSE resits. Details of all commissioned evaluations can be found in the table below.
In Spring 2025, the EEF continued to prioritise transition, attendance and GCSE resits as well as the new theme of EdTech and AI. There are currently four programmes in the final stages of approval focussing on transition from school to college, English resits and EdTech/AI.
The Autumn 2025 funding round will support early-stage programme development (meaning programmes in their initial stages of development, or yet to be developed) and is focussed on the priority areas of attendance (both college wide and subject specific) and GCSE English resit attainment. This aims to support the number of high-quality, evidence-based programmes available within the 16 – 19 sector.
Completed trials and pilot studies
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Age (yrs) | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results | Beyond the headline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCSE resits (maths) | Effectiveness | Basic Maths Premium | Department for Education | 16 – 19 | Targeted | Additional funding per eligible student for colleges in disadvantaged areas, to support their achievement in maths. | Equivalent of 0 months’ additional progress. Not taken to Scale-up. | Some variation by funding model tested. The evaluation faced a number of challenges and so has a very low security rating. |
| GCSE resits (English and maths) | Efficacy | Texting Students and Study Supporters | Behavioural Insights Team | 16 – 19 | Whole setting | Programme used text messages with the aim of improving GCSE English and maths resit pass rates by prompting college students to attend classes and exams. | 0 months 4 padlocks Not taken forward to an Effectiveness trial. | It was the highly motivated students that were more engaged with their studies and with college generally who were more likely to sign up to the intervention. |
| GCSE resits (maths) | Efficacy | The 5Rs approach to GCSE Maths resits | Association of Colleges | 16 – 19 | Whole class | Programme to support teaching of GCSE maths resits, including training, diagnostic assessments and schemes of work based around 5Rs (recall, routine, revise, repeat, ready) to improve resit results. | The report will be published in Spring 2026. Not taken forward to an Effectiveness trial. | Affected by COVID-19 and data return. |
| GCSE resits (English) | Pilot | Assess for Success | The Manchester College | 16 – 19 | Whole class | Aimed to improve the assessment of GCSE English resit learners, utilising a diagnostic assessment, progress assessments and tracking tools. | Delivery completed, not taken forward to trial. | Teachers found the diagnostic assessment an improvement, but the lack of alignment between the assessment and the GCSE exam led to false expectations about the difficulty of the GCSE exam. |
| GCSE resits (maths) | Pilot | Embedding contextualisation in English and mathematics GCSE teaching | Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) | 16 – 19 | Whole class | Trained resit teachers to use real life and vocational contexts and examples in their teaching, emphasising relevance to future careers. | The evaluation report will be published in Autumn 2026. |
Completed early-stage programme development projects
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Age (yrs) | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCSE resits (English) | Early-stage programme development (Development) | English Mastery Approaches for FE GCSE Resit | Nelson and Colne College Group | 16 – 19 | Targeted | Six-week programme for Level 2 vocational, English resit learners. The programme explored the use of a mastery approach to develop learners’ use of tier 2 interdisciplinary vocabulary, to apply to a variety of contexts. | Delivery completed. Currently in approval process to take forward to an Efficacy trial. |
Trials and pilot studies in progress
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Age (yrs) | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GCSE resits (maths) | Effectiveness | Mastering Maths | University of Nottingham | 16 – 19 | Whole Class | Professional development for post-16 GCSE maths teachers, which aims to improve GCSE maths outcomes. Approaches are underpinned by five key principles developed by the FE sector, which reflect the needs of students in the sector. | Currently delivering. The report will be published in Summer 2026. |
| GCSE resits (maths) | Efficacy | Maths-for-Life | University of Nottingham | 16 – 19 | Whole class | Aims to make GCSE resit classes more student-centred, focusing on problem-solving and discussion through approaches such as dialogic teaching. | Awaiting the report. |
| GCSE resits (English and maths) | Efficacy | Get Further | Get Further | 16 – 19 | Targeted | Small-group tuition for learners resitting GCSE English and maths. | Recruiting. The report will be published in Spring 2027. |
| GCSE resits (English and maths) | Pilot | Tutor Trust | Tutor Trust | 16 – 19 | Targeted | 15 hours of one-to-one tutoring in either GCSE English or maths, alongside mentoring support. | Currently delivering. The report will be published in Spring 2026. |
| GCSE resits (maths) | Pilot | Can-Do Maths | Education Training Foundation | 16 – 19 | Whole class | Professional development to implement whole-class techniques to develop resilience and engagement with post-16 GCSE maths resit learners. | Currently delivering. The report will be published in Autumn 2026. |