Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department gives to secondary schools near grammar schools about setting realistic attainment targets for pupils; and what steps she is taking to reflect this in school performance tables for secondary schools.

The Department does not issue guidance on setting attainment targets for pupils. It is for teachers to use their professional judgement to set pupil targets.

The Department sets floor standards against which schools will be measured in performance tables. From 2016 we are replacing the existing secondary school floor standard, based on the percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more A*- C grades including English and maths, with Progress 8. This is a measure based on the progress a pupil makes from KS2 (age 11) to a group of 8 subjects at the end of KS4 (age 16) compared to pupils with the same starting point.

Progress 8 is a fairer way of measuring school performance as schools will no longer be disadvantaged by having a challenging intake.