Testing, testing

When were A levels first sat? They can be traced back to the Oxford Local, an external examination for schools instigated by Oxford University in 1858. Out of 401 candidates only 150 passed, with the Educational Times complaining that the questions were more searching than those on Oxford’s BA exam two decades earlier.

– The first standardised national exam designed to be taken at 18 was the Higher School Certificate introduced by the Board of Education in 1917. In order to pass, candidates had to satisfy the examiners in a minimum of five subjects. The certificate was replaced by A levels in 1951.

Bone-dry Britain

How unusual is the drought?

– This July was the driest month, averaged across England, since 1935, although parts of the south-east were the driest on record.

– From January to July, Reading University measured 216mm of rain, the third driest period since records began in 1908. The driest was 1976 (159mm) followed by 1944 (188mm). Over a slightly longer period, November to July, 2021/22 comes out as the third driest, with 283mm of rain, behind 1988/89 (277mm) and 1975/76 (240mm).

Holiday count-up

The Prime Minister took a second holiday in the space of a month. How many holidays does the average Briton take in a year?

– According to the ONS, UK citizens made 93.1m overseas visits in 2019. Of these, 58.7m were described as holidays and 23.5m ‘visiting family and friends’. In addition, according to Visit Britain, British citizens took 60.45m holidays in Britain, 19.83m of which were four nights or more.

– The figures don’t quite cover every holiday as they exclude UK citizens who took holidays in Northern Ireland. But, on the assumption ‘visiting family and friends’ is really a holiday, it suggests the average Briton is taking around 2.1 holidays a year.

Are we content?

Britain might seem to be in crisis, but how happy are we?

– 25.5% of over-16s reported a very high level of overall life satisfaction.

– 46.9% are ‘mostly or completely satisfied with their health’ (little change from pre-pandemic – it was 47.8% in 2018/19).

– 21.8% say they suffer from depression or anxiety, up from 17.4% in 2014/15.

– 4.3% say they are ‘fairly or extremely unhappy in a relationship’, down from 8.3% in 2013/14.

– 6.5% of adults say they are lonely ‘often or always’ (up from 5.4% in 2016/17).