Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria her Department used to identify the 312 schools that had been classified as having fallen beneath the floor target in the school performance tables in England for 2014 to 2015, published in January 2016.

Nick Gibb

In 2014/15, 312 schools were below the 5+ A*-C including English and mathematics and expected progress floor standard. Schools were deemed to be below the floor standard if:

• Fewer than 40% of pupils achieved five or more GCSEs at grade A*-C or equivalent, including both English and mathematics; and
• The school had a below median score for the percentage of pupils making expected progress between key stage 2 and key stage 4 in English; and
• The school had a below median score for the percentage of pupils making expected progress between key stage 2 and key stage 4 in mathematics.

From 2016 Progress 8 will replace the existing 5 A*-C headline measure. Progress 8 will show pupils’ progress to a suite of 8 qualifications compared to other pupils with the same starting point at the end of key stage 2. The new measure will reward better teaching of all pupils and make the system of measuring performance fairer for schools.