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Our expanding library of case studies showcases how our members have effectively utilised HEAT to target, monitor and evaluate their interventions.
- Research & Evidence
- Case Studies
These case studies have been written and shared in order to guide and support other HEAT members to effectively use HEAT within their own context. As a community, we can use these case studies to learn from each other and, together, develop more robust targeting, monitoring and evaluation capabilities. If you have a case study you would like to contribute to this page, please do get in touch with HEAT Support.
Where members have given permission for these reports to be published publicly, they can be accessed via the link, otherwise reports are available within the HEAT membership through our File Store.
In this section, you can read practical evaluation examples which make optimal use of HEAT-Key Stage 4 Track data to demonstrate the impact of participation in Key Stage 4 attainment-raising activities. These reports follow quasi-experimental evaluation designs. Explore the links below for more details.
Canterbury Christ Church University
Discover Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU’s) Case Study on the impact of the Inspiring Minds Year 10 STEM Programme on Key Stage 4 attainment. By analysing HEAT data, CCCU found that, amongst other positive results, participants of Inspiring Minds were +26 percentage points more likely to achieve a 9 to 4 pass in Maths (64%) than the non-participant group (38%).
Read the summary report online, or download the full report from File Store (last updated March 2022, HEAT members-only).
Download the full CCCU report (members only)
Make Happen
Learn more about Make Happen’s Case Study exploring the impact of two pre-16 activities on participants’ Key Stage 4 exam attainment. Analysis using HEAT data shows that for participants on their ‘Fix-Up’ programme, Attainment 8 Scores were higher than the average scores for the schools they came from, even when controlling for prior attainment at Key Stage 2. Participants with the lowest prior attainment demonstrated the greatest positive difference in grades.
The Brilliant Club
Read more about the success of The Brilliant Club’s Scholars Programme in driving GCSE attainment. Using HEAT data, The Brilliant Club have shown that Years 8, 9 or 10 student on this programme were more likely to achieve a 9-5 in Maths and English than students who scored similarly at Key Stage 2 within their schools (last updated January 2025).
Read The Brilliant Club Scholars Programme Research Note
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) have used the data they have recorded on the HEAT system to design some quasi-experimental research into the impact of their pre-16 attainment raising activities on pupil attainment at KS4. The resulting report explains how they undertook this work in a practical way that may be of benefit to others.
Although NTU could not prove a casual link between their interventions and KS4 achievement, they were able to show that their work is associated with beneficial results, making it a ‘Type 2’ Office for Students (OfS) Standard of Evidence.
In this section, you can read practical evaluation examples which make optimal use of HEAT Track data to demonstrate the impact of participating in outreach on progression to higher education. Explore the links below for more details.
Queen Mary University of London
We worked with Queen Mary University of London to evaluate the impact of participating in their Medicine and Dentistry Year 12 Summer School.
The analysis follows a quasi-experimental evaluation design and draws on data supplied as part of the HEAT Track to examine the impact of participation on higher education progression. The full report (last updated January 2022) is available in the File Store (HEAT members only).
Download the full QMUL report (members only)
Realising Opportunities Impact Report 2024
In this report Realising Opportunities have used HEAT Track data to demonstrate the impact of their programme of interventions on higher education progression. It also shows how HEAT data can be triangulated with other data sources to provide a comprehensive evaluation of impact across the student lifecycle (last updated 2024).
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) have produced a practical guide to how post-entry activities may be classified and subsequently recorded onto HEAT using TASO’s post-entry typology (last updated March 2024).
Members may wish to look at this case-study to assist them in developing their own data infrastructure for recording post-entry activities and participants on HEAT, and can refer to our guidance on using the post-entry MOAT typology on File Store.