To ask the Minister of Education whether his Department issues guidance to post-primary schools, in relation to readmittance into year 13 and year 14, on the basis of GCSE and AS Level results.

Admission onto a course of post-16 study is a matter for Boards of Governors of individual schools and my Department does not provide guidance in respect of Year 13 admission.

However, once pupils are enrolled on a two-year course of study, my Department expects schools to support sixth-form students at every stage of their learning journey. In 2024 my Department wrote to schools to highlight the expectation that schools make every reasonable effort to ensure that pupils can wherever possible remain in their school for Year 14 and are supported to complete their studies over two years as originally planned.