Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the gap between the lowest and highest achievers in GCSE science performance.

High and rising school standards are central to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and the key to strengthening outcomes for all children and young people. The best way of helping schools to support lower attainers and drive standards in GCSE science performance is to ensure high quality science teaching at all levels, by helping schools to recruit and retain good teachers.

For those training to teach in the 2025/26 academic year, there is a bursary worth £29,000 tax-free or a scholarship worth £31,000 tax-free to train to teach high priority subjects, such as chemistry and physics. There is also a £26,000 tax-free bursary for biology.

For the 2025/26 academic year, the department is also offering a targeted retention incentive, worth up to £6,000 after tax, for physics and chemistry teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged areas. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

The department also funds the Subject Knowledge for Physics Teaching programme, a series of blended learning courses with modules available each term to support non-specialist teachers of key stage 3 and 4 physics to enhance their subject knowledge.