Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment has she made of the impact of the English Baccalaureate on improving the educational outcomes for children on Free School Meals.

The Department published the outcomes of the consultation on implementing the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) on 19 July (https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/implementing-the-english-baccalaureate) alongside its EBacc equality analysis (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-baccalaureate-equality-analysis).

The EBacc policy aims to ensure that the vast majority of pupils, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, take the EBacc subjects. Sutton Trust research¹ found that 300 secondary schools had transformed their Key Stage 4 curriculum between 2010 and 2013 in response to Government policy, achieving a rise in the proportion of pupils entering the EBacc from 8% to 48%. It also found that pupil premium students benefitted most from the changes at these schools.

The Department publishes entries into, and achievement of, the EBacc for pupils eligible for free school meals. A time series, with the latest available information (2015/16) can be be found in the ‘characteristics summary’ tab, of the ‘characteristics national tables: SFR03/2017’ at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/revised-gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-2015-to-2016.

1. Sutton Trust: Changing the Subject, Rebecca Allen and Dave Thompson, July 2016 https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Changing-the-subject_V4-1.pdf.