Schools to be measured on pupil progess in new tables

From 2016, secondary schools in England will be expected to meet targets based on pupils’ progress across eight subjects.

Schools Minister David Laws told MPs yesterday the current system leads to schools focussing on pupils on the C/D grade borderline at the expense of their more and less able classmates.

He warned the five A* to C GCSE benchmark led to schools narrrowing their curriculum and also allowed some schools in affluent areas to coast.

Under the new system floor targets will be based on a pupils progress. A pupil’s performance at the end of primary school will be used to set an expectation of how well they should do at GCSE. Schools will get credit where pupils outperform these expectations. Mr Laws said: “This approach will ensure that all pupils matter, and will matter equally. This approach is fairer for schools as well as pupils.

“Coasting schools will no longer be let off the hook. Equally, head teachers will no longer feel penalised when they have actually performed well with a challenging intake. We must not deter the best head teachers and teachers from working in challenging schools.”

Schools will be considered under-performing in future if pupils’ progress is “half a grade lower than reasonable expectations”, Mr Laws said.

He added: “At present, there are 195 schools below the floor standard. Using existing figures, we estimate that around twice as many schools would be below this new floor standard.

“However, as schools will adjust their curriculum to the new framework the actual number is likely to be significantly lower than this.” Schools which perform above expectations will not face an Ofsted inspection the following year.

The new tables will contain four measures of school performance: Pupils’ progress across eight subjects; the average grade achieved in these same ‘best eight’ subjects; the percentage of pupils achieving a C grade in English and maths and the proportion gaining the English Baccalaureate - which is given to pupils who achieve at least a C in core subjects including English, maths, two sciences, a modern language and either history or geography.

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart, who chairs the education select committee, said: “These plans are an educational breakthrough that will blow away the damaging obsession with the C/D grade boundary and help every child achieve the best possible results.” Russell Hobby, general secretary of National Association of Head Teachers, said the reforms were a significant step in the right direction.