Eleven Plus

(asked on 23rd July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what safeguards are in place to ensure that pupils born in the summer are not disadvantaged in the 11-plus tests for entry to selective state schools.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Agnew of Oulton
This question was answered on 1st August 2019

The department can confirm that none of the 16 successful applications to the Selective Schools Expansion Fund (SSEF), announced 3 December 2018, applied for a satellite expansion. As we have done for the bids that were successful in round one, we will publish the Fair Access and Partnership Plans for schools that were successful in round two. The department does not intend to publish full SSEF bids as they contain commercially sensitive information.

Admission authorities for grammar schools are responsible for setting their selection tests, including determining the pass threshold. The department wants more pupils to be able to attend Good and Outstanding schools, and 98% of grammar schools are Good or Outstanding schools. Where the pass mark is determined by the admission authority to be a disproportionate barrier for entry for disadvantaged pupils in comparison to their non-disadvantaged peers, it could be considered appropriate to set a lower test pass mark for children eligible for pupil premium funding. Equally, grammar school admission authorities may raise their pass mark if they consider this appropriate. The admission authority would have to consider the impact of the changes on the allocation of places and their stated pupil admissions number.

The School Admissions Code requires all admission arrangements to be fair. A selection test is part of a school’s admission arrangements. The majority of schools who select on academic ability or aptitude age weight the results of their selection test. Where a selective school who admits on academic ability or aptitude does not age weight test results and a parent considers this unfair, they may raise an objection to the schools adjudicator, who has previously issued determinations on this particular issue.

The progress 8 scores for all individual secondary schools, including non-selective schools, are available online at the department’s Find and Compare schools website. The department also publishes data on pupil progress 8 scores in non-selective schools in all highly selective areas in “Key stage 4 and multi-academy trust performance 2018 (revised)”[1]: Selective and non-selective school performance data (of which one component is Progress 8 scores) is analysed by the department as part of ongoing consideration of school performance across the country.

[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/806276/2018_Revised_National_tables.xlsx.

Reticulating Splines