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. While the context presents several complexities – including GCSE resit outcomes, attendance, data access and comparability, and complex transitions from school to college – these also create clear opportunities for improvement. These opportunities are particularly important for socio-economically disadvantaged learners, who often face additional barriers to success, but who benefit most from high-quality teaching and support.
Why it matters to our mission
The EEF’s mission to close the disadvantage gap is particularly important in the 16 – 19 context, where there is a significant opportunity to make a meaningful difference. The disadvantage attainment gap widens as learners progress through the education system and by the end of secondary school, disadvantaged pupils are on average 18.8 months behind their peers, and persistently disadvantaged pupils (those eligible for free school meals for at least 80% of their time at school), nearly two years (22.7 months) behind.
The 16 – 19 stage represents a crucial phase before most young people leave the education system. Yet, disadvantaged learners are on average leaving 3.5 grades behind their peers across their best three subjects, and 4.5 grades behind peers when persistently disadvantaged. Despite the challenges learners face, including low prior attainment and more limited access to targeted support, there is clear potential to narrow these gaps in 16 – 19.
The evidence base for 16 – 19 education is steadily growing, with increasing engagement across the sector. To date, seventeen evaluations and several early-stage development projects have been funded, and a significant proportion of FE colleges and Sixth Form Colleges have already participated in EEF evaluations.
The EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit includes around 170 studies involving 16 – 19-year-olds, providing a valuable foundation of evidence insight. Work is currently underway at the EEF to synthesise these 16 – 19 studies, helping to draw clearer conclusions and provide practical, evidence-informed support for 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 growing body of work is helping strengthen understanding of the 16 – 19 phase. A 2023 review explored challenges in 16 – 19 education, including transition, attendance, and GCSE resits. A 2025 practice review on professional development in 16 – 19 settings has informed the EEF’s first guidance for the sector. Further work is underway on metacognition to support independent learning, and on transitions to explore effective approaches from school to 16 – 19 settings. A UKRI policy fellowship is focused on understanding how to support learners on Level 2 vocational programmes to complete and successfully progress to a Level 3 qualification within 16 – 19. Additional research aims to identify qualification pathways and variation in student outcomes. |
| 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 Mobilisation | A 16 – 19 Evidence Partnership between the EEF and six colleges launched in September 2025. The partnership plays a key role in supporting the sector with accessing and using high-quality research evidence. |
EEF launched its first dedicated 16 – 19 funding round in 2023. Since then, key themes have focused on GCSE English and maths resits (including academic and socio-emotional support); transition from school to college (including vocational and technical pathways); attendance; and EdTech/AI. These have been considered across trial and pilot evaluations, early-stage programme development (meaning programmes in their initial stages of development, or yet to be developed) and choices (meaning decisions settings or teachers make and how they impact outcomes).
| Year | Key Themes | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | GCSE English and maths resits | Trials, pilots |
| 2024 | Transition from school to college; Attendance; GCSE resits | Setting Choices |
| 2025 | Transition from school to college; Attendance; GCSE resits; EdTech and AI | Trials, Pilots, Early-stage programme development |
| 2026 | Attendance and transition (focus on vocational and technical courses); GCSE resits; EdTech and AI | Pilots, Setting Choices |
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. | |
| 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. | - 2 months’ progress 1 padlock trial | Learners in the intervention group were significantly more likely to attend their GCSE Maths exam. |
| 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. | Delivery completed, not taken forwards to trial. | Learners experienced positive outcomes, however only 24% completed the minimum tutoring hours. |
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. | Delivery completed. The report will be published in Spring 2027. |
| GCSE resits (English and maths) | Efficacy | Get Further | Get Further | 16 – 19 | Targeted | Small-group tuition for learners resitting GCSE English and maths. | Delivery completed. The report will be published in Autumn 2027. |
| 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. | Delivery completed. The report will be published in Spring 2027. |
| GCSE resits (English) | Efficacy | Vocabulary Mastery for GCSE English Resit | East Lancashire Learning Group (ELLG) | 16 – 19 | Targeted | A 12-week, targeted intervention to develop the tier two vocabulary of GCSE English resit learners to improve English resit outcomes. | Recruiting for delivery in Autumn 2026. |
| Transition and attendance | Efficacy | STEER Tracking to support 16+ transition, attendance and retention | STEER Education | 16 – 19 | Whole class | A year-long, whole class EdTech platform to support learners who are transitioning from Year 11 into 16+ education through personalised and direct learner feedback. | Recruited for delivery in Autumn 2026. |
In progress choices evaluations
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Age (yrs) | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transition | Quasi-experimental design | Evaluation of Brighton & Hove’s approach to supporting transition to 16 – 19 | Brighton and Hove City Council | 16 – 19 | Regional level choice | An approach that aims to support the transition of vulnerable Year 11 pupils into 16 – 19 learning by facilitating data sharing between secondary schools and 16 – 19 providers | The main evaluation report will be published in Summer 2028. Interim findings will be published in Summer 2027 and longitudinal findings in Spring/Summer 2029. |
| GCSE Resit (English and maths) | Quasi-experimental design | GCSE Resit Teaching Hours | NFER | 16 – 19 | Setting level choice | Aims to assess how new Department for Education funding rules requiring minimum teaching hours for GCSE resit students affect maths and English GCSE outcomes in 16 – 19 settings. | The scoping phase was completed between May 2025 and December 2025, with publication in Autumn 2026. |
| Attendance | Quasi-experimental design | Further Education Attendance Strategies | Behavioural Insights Team | 16 – 19 | Setting level choice | Aims to explore what strategies are being used by Further Education (FE) colleges to address poor attendance, including best practices and how they may lead to improvements in learners’ attendance and attainment outcomes. | The scoping phase will be completed in Autumn 2026. Once finalised a report will be published. |
| GCSE Resit (English and maths) | Quasi-experimental design | GCSE Resit Exam Entry Choices | ICF | 16 – 19 | Setting level choice | Aims to test the impact of different resit enrolment choices on Maths/English resit outcomes. | The scoping phase will be completed between May 2025 and July 2026, with publication in Spring 2027. |
| Transition | Quasi-experimental design | Transition with GIAP Data | Education Policy Institute | 16 – 19 | Setting level choice | Aims to explore the potential impact of accessing and using‘Get Information about Pupils’ (GIAP) learner data on attainment outcomes, particularly for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. | The scoping phase was undertaken until Spring 2026. Once finalised a report will be published. |