Provision by location

The section of the report looks at the provision of computer science GCSE and A level by school location. It provides tables, graphs and maps looking at the regional, local education authority and urban / rural categorisation of a school. For each of these it presents the total number of providers and students in that grouping along with the percentage of providers offering the subject and the percentage of students taking the subject. It provides data on the % reach - the percentage of students in a school where the subject was offered, and % of possible - the percentage of students in schools offering the subject who took the subject.

Looking at this data, you can see:

• there are regional differences in GCSE provision, with 70.7 % of providers offering the subject and 85.6 % of students in the East of England in a provider that offered the subject; compared to just 55.6 % of providers in the North East serving 74.5 % of the student population of the region.
• the recent increase in A level provision has not been spread equally across the country, ranging from 62.3 % of providers in the North West offering the subject to 52.7 % in the West Midlands. 3.8 % of students in London took the qualification, compared to just 2.0 % in Yorkshire and the Humber.
• Slough is the local education authority with the highest provision of GCSE computer science, with 26.6 % of all students taking the qualification and 96.4 % of students in schools offering the subject. This might be due to the large number of grammar school providers in the Slough area. North East Lincolnshire had the lowest provision with 3.5 % of students taking the GCSE and just 30.5% of students being in a school offering the subject.
• several local education authorities had 100 of providers offering computer science (Swindon, Barnslet and Tameside), Wokingham had the highest percentage of students taking the subject, with 8.2 % sitting an exam in 2023. Thurrock and Knowsley had no A level computer science provision in this year.
• schools in urban settings had a higher percentage of providers offering GCSE computer science (67.2 %) than those in rural settings (60.7 %). Where providers did offer the subject, rural cohorts were generally smaller, 21.2, compared to 29.1 for urban cohorts. This might be a reflection on the average size of their GCSE cohorts, which was 144 for urban schools and 106 for rural schools. Smaller school sizes and rural settings might also reflect lower numbers of computing teachers, thought this remains unexplored.
• this difference between urban and rural providers was also seen in A level provision

1 Region

This section looks at the regional differences in the provision of Computer Science at GCSE and A level. England has been split into 9 regions. There are large variations in population and poverty levels of each region.

1.1 GCSE

Figure 1.1: GCSE Computer Science provision by region, 2012-23

Table 1.1: GCSE Computer Science uptake by region, 2022/23

Region	Total		Subject					Possible
	URN	Students	URN	Students	URN %	Student %	Avg Cohort	Students	% of possible	% reach
East of England	512	74,657	362	10,657	70.7%	14.3%	29.4	63,902	16.7%	85.6%
South East	810	110,518	554	16,565	68.4%	15.0%	29.9	94,251	17.6%	85.3%
North West	647	87,363	439	11,374	67.9%	13.0%	25.9	74,383	15.3%	85.1%
London	741	99,489	514	15,765	69.4%	15.8%	30.7	83,666	18.8%	84.1%
South West	460	61,752	312	8,128	67.8%	13.2%	26.1	51,592	15.8%	83.5%
East Midlands	382	55,347	248	7,121	64.9%	12.9%	28.7	44,090	16.2%	79.7%
West Midlands	562	72,616	333	9,047	59.3%	12.5%	27.2	55,375	16.3%	76.3%
Yorkshire and the Humber	430	63,655	262	6,121	60.9%	9.6%	23.4	47,498	12.9%	74.6%
North East	207	28,594	115	2,742	55.6%	9.6%	23.8	21,290	12.9%	74.5%
Total	4,751	653,991	3,139	87,520	66.1%	13.4%	27.9	536,047	16.3%	82.0%

Figure 1.2: percentage of students taking GCSE Computer Science by Region, 2012-23

Figure 1.3: percentage of schools offering GCSE Computer Science by Region, 2012-23

Figure 1.4: percentage of students in schools offering GCSE Computer Science by Region, 2012-23

1.2 A-level

Figure 1.5: percentage of students in schools offering A level Computer Science by region, 2012-23

Table 1.2: A level Computer Science uptake by region, 2022/23

Region	Total URN	Total students	Subject					Possible
			URN	Students	URN %	Student %	Avg Cohort	Students	% of possible	% reach
South West	276	58,618	172	1,511	62.3%	2.6%	8.8	39,244	3.9%	66.9%
North West	266	81,243	148	2,114	55.6%	2.6%	14.3	54,087	3.9%	66.6%
South East	505	104,712	279	3,247	55.2%	3.1%	11.6	68,468	4.7%	65.4%
North East	98	30,418	56	499	57.1%	1.6%	8.9	19,262	2.6%	63.3%
London	522	98,674	310	3,712	59.4%	3.8%	12.0	60,068	6.2%	60.9%
West Midlands	313	68,143	165	1,717	52.7%	2.5%	10.4	41,048	4.2%	60.2%
Yorkshire and the Humber	212	60,851	119	1,236	56.1%	2.0%	10.4	36,216	3.4%	59.5%
East Midlands	232	44,214	132	1,310	56.9%	3.0%	9.9	26,298	5.0%	59.5%
East of England	322	70,799	191	2,068	59.3%	2.9%	10.8	38,687	5.3%	54.6%
Total	2,746	617,672	1,572	17,414	57.2%	2.8%	11.1	383,378	4.5%	62.1%

Figure 1.6: percentage of students taking A level Computer Science by region, 2012-23

Figure 1.7: percentage of schools offering A level Computer Science by region, 2012-23

Figure 1.8: percentage of students in schools offering A level Computer Science by Region, 2012-23

2 Local Authority

2.1 GCSE

Figure 2.1: Map of GCSE Computer Science providers with history of provision, 2012-23

Table 2.1: GCSE Computer Science uptake by local authority, 2022/23

2.2 Alevel

Figure 2.2: Map of A level Computer Science providers with history of provision, 2012-23

Table 2.2: A level Computer Science uptake by local authority, 2022/23

3 Rural Urban

3.1 GCSE

Table 3.1: GCSE Computer Science uptake by urban/rural school type, 2012-23

	Type	Total		Subject					Possible
		URN	Students	URN	Students	URN %	Student %	Avg Cohort	Students	% of possible	% reach
2023	Rural	810	86,199	492	10,406	60.7%	12.1%	21.2	69,968	14.9%	81.2%
2023	Urban	3,941	567,792	2,647	77,114	67.2%	13.6%	29.1	466,079	16.5%	82.1%
2022	Rural	798	83,410	467	9,712	58.5%	11.6%	20.8	65,371	14.9%	78.4%
2022	Urban	3,911	549,604	2,494	68,453	63.8%	12.5%	27.4	431,704	15.9%	78.5%
2021	Rural	788	82,648	449	9,485	57.0%	11.5%	21.1	64,375	14.7%	77.9%
2021	Urban	3,845	540,898	2,423	66,207	63.0%	12.2%	27.3	421,078	15.7%	77.8%
2020	Rural	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2020	Urban	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2019	Rural	793	78,306	454	9,615	57.3%	12.3%	21.2	61,539	15.6%	78.6%
2019	Urban	3,852	507,698	2,516	67,687	65.3%	13.3%	26.9	413,679	16.4%	81.5%
2018	Rural	742	70,819	403	8,059	54.3%	11.4%	20.0	54,476	14.8%	76.9%
2018	Urban	3,704	472,078	2,308	59,341	62.3%	12.6%	25.7	375,186	15.8%	79.5%
2017	Rural	708	68,069	351	7,217	49.6%	10.6%	20.6	49,819	14.5%	73.2%
2017	Urban	3,513	453,650	2,094	55,776	59.6%	12.3%	26.6	350,659	15.9%	77.3%
2016	Rural	693	68,064	279	5,930	40.3%	8.7%	21.3	42,963	13.8%	63.1%
2016	Urban	3,366	446,536	1,796	48,355	53.4%	10.8%	26.9	314,166	15.4%	70.4%
2015	Rural	652	67,134	157	3,189	24.1%	4.8%	20.3	25,686	12.4%	38.3%
2015	Urban	3,214	435,946	1,098	26,066	34.2%	6.0%	23.7	199,787	13.0%	45.8%
2014	Rural	625	65,624	70	1,233	11.2%	1.9%	17.6	11,602	10.6%	17.7%
2014	Urban	3,025	419,134	531	12,001	17.6%	2.9%	22.6	98,225	12.2%	23.4%
2013	Rural	618	63,521	26	498	4.2%	0.8%	19.2	4,169	11.9%	6.6%
2013	Urban	2,962	391,219	144	2,850	4.9%	0.7%	19.8	26,720	10.7%	6.8%
2012	Rural	560	52,718	9	124	1.6%	0.2%	13.8	1,282	9.7%	2.4%
2012	Urban	2,520	315,547	52	968	2.1%	0.3%	18.6	10,354	9.3%	3.3%

Figure 3.1: percentage of schools offering GCSE Computer Science by Urban/Rural Categories, 2012-23

3.2 Alevel

	Type	Total URN	Subject
			URN	Students	URN %	Avg Cohort
2023	Rural	382	202	1,332	52.9%	6.6
2023	Urban	2,360	1,366	16,021	57.9%	11.7
2022	Rural	384	189	1,198	49.2%	6.3
2022	Urban	2,353	1,299	13,665	55.2%	10.5
2021	Rural	385	178	1,174	46.2%	6.6
2021	Urban	2,350	1,244	12,652	52.9%	10.2
2020	Rural	-	-	-	-	-
2020	Urban	-	-	-	-	-
2019	Rural	403	157	534	39.0%	3.4
2019	Urban	2,415	1,156	7,564	47.9%	6.5
2018	Rural	391	134	447	34.3%	3.3
2018	Urban	2,374	1,055	6,537	44.4%	6.2
2017	Rural	380	110	340	28.9%	3.1
2017	Urban	2,317	853	4,600	36.8%	5.4
2016	Rural	379	73	381	19.3%	5.2
2016	Urban	2,276	685	4,462	30.1%	6.5
2015	Rural	358	64	318	17.9%	5.0
2015	Urban	2,150	544	3,667	25.3%	6.7
2014	Rural	346	46	206	13.3%	4.5
2014	Urban	2,050	410	2,744	20.0%	6.7
2013	Rural	332	32	196	9.6%	6.1
2013	Urban	1,899	345	2,355	18.2%	6.8
2012	Rural	302	23	128	7.6%	5.6
2012	Urban	1,603	312	2,258	19.5%	7.2

Table 3.2: GCSE Computer Science uptake by urban/rural school type, 2012-23

Figure 3.2: percentage of schools offering A level Computer Science by Urban/Rural Categories, 2012-23