Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the speed of education reform does not compromise the assessment of school performance.

We are introducing new performance measures for primary and secondary schools in 2016. The reforms were announced in March 2014 for primary and October 2013 for secondary schools to give sufficient time to respond to the new measures.

The new measures will make the school accountability system fairer by using progress to measure performance. By focusing on progress, we will be able to identify high and low performing schools more accurately; coasting schools will be identified and schools making good progress with more challenging intakes will be recognised. This will ensure every child can reach their potential.

The speed of reforms has been carefully managed. The department consulted on both primary and secondary accountability reforms before finalising plans and notified schools of the changes in advance to give them time to prepare. The department plans to provide primary schools with the information they need to complete teacher assessments before September and has made guidance and information available to secondary schools on Progress 8 to help them prepare for the reforms.

The Government response to the Primary Assessment and Accountability Consultation was published on 27 March 2014. This is published online at:

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/new-national-curriculum-primary-assessment-and-accountability

The Government response to the Secondary Accountability Consultation was published on 14 October 2013. It is published online at:

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/secondary-school-accountability-consultation