Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference his Department's publication, Revised GCSE and equivalent results in England 2016 to 2017: statistical release SFR01/2018, published on 25 January 2018, if he will publish the average Progress 8 scores in 2017 for pupils receiving free school meals at non-selective schools in highly selective areas.

The average Progress 8 scores[1] in 2017 for pupils receiving free school meals at the end of Key Stage 4 by school admission basis in England for academic year 2016/17 are publicly available.

The latest statistics, for 2016-2017, are available in Table CH3b of the ‘Characteristics national tables’ in the statistical first release ‘Revised GCSE and equivalent results in England 2016 to 2017’, which was published in 25 January 2018: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/revised-gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-2016-to-2017.

[1] Progress 8 compares pupils’ achievement (their Attainment 8 score) with the average Attainment 8 score of all pupils nationally who had a similar starting point (based on their assessment results from the end of primary school). Progress 8 is a relative measure; therefore, the national average Progress 8 score for mainstream schools is very close to zero. When including pupils at special schools the national average is not zero as Progress 8 scores for special schools are calculated using Attainment 8 estimates based on pupils in mainstream schools. Progress 8 scores are estimates and the confidence intervals provide the likely bounds of the true score. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/progress-8-school-performance-measure.