HC Deb 21 February 1996 vol 272 cc198-200W
17. Mr. French

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many applications for grant-maintained status are currently being considered. [14693]

Mrs. Gillan

Twenty three proposals are under consideration at the moment.

Mr. Patrick Thompson

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment she has made of the relative performance of grant-maintained and local authority schools. [16716]

Mr. Robin Squire

The 1995 school performance tables show that nearly half the pupils in grant-maintained schools achieved five or more good GCSE passes, compared with 39 per cent. of pupils in local education authority schools. There was almost no difference in the performance of pupils in selective schools in the two sectors, but 45 per cent. of pupils in GM comprehensive schools achieved five or more good GCSE passes compared with 39 per cent. in LEA schools. Analysis of the GCSE performance tables over three years suggests that GM schools have made more progress than LEA schools in raising standards year on year. In the 1995

1C: comprehensive schools only, banded by the percentage of pupils taking free school meals
GCSE passes Percentage of pupils taking free school meals 5+A*-C 5+A*-G 1+A*-G
LEA comprehensives Less than 5 54.9 94.5 97.2
5–9 45.8 91.3 95.7
10–14 36.7 86.9 93.4
15–20 30.0 82.1 90.5
20 and over 21.1 73.9 85.8
Total 38.7 86.3 92.9
GM comprehensives Less than 5 59.5 95.7 97.8
5–9 47.9 93.3 97.0
10–14 38.0 88.4 94.6
15–20 32.9 85.3 91.8
20 and over 27.7 81.5 91.0
Total 44.7 90.7 95.5

Table 2: Percentage of seven-year-old pupils achieving national curriculum level 2 and above
Key stage 1 English Mathematics Science
TA1 Test1 TA Test TA Test
LEA schools 81 78 Re 78 79 84 —
— 80 Wr — — — —
— 65 Sp — — — —
— 78 Ha — — — —
GM schools 86 85 re 84 84 88 —
— 85 Wr — — — —
— 73 sp — — — —
— 85 Ha — — — —
1 TA = teacher assessment, Test = national test. For English. KS1 national test results are given separately for Reading (RE), Writing (Wr), Spelling (Sp) and Handwriting (Ha).

Table 5: time series comparison of LEA-maintained schools with schools which became grant maintained on or before September 1992
Percentage of pupils achieving 5+ A-C GCSEs in 1992 Percentage of pupils achieving 5+ A-C GCSEs in 1995 Percentage point increase 1995 over 1992
LEA maintained schools Selective 89.4 93.5 4.1
Comprehensive 33.0 37.7 4.6
Secondary modern 19.0 24.5 5.5
All 33.9 38.5 4.7
GM schools Selective 89.3 94.8 5.6
Comprehensive 39.3 45.5 6.3
Secondary modern 19.4 28.1 8.7
All 48.8 55.0 6.3

national curriculum assessments for seven, 11 and 14-year-olds, a greater proportion of pupils in GM schools achieved higher levels of attainment at each key stage. Detail are set out in the tables.

Table 1: Percentage of 15-year-old pupils achieving graded GCSE results in 1995
1A: all schools
GCSE passes 5+ A*-C 5+ A*-G 1+ A-G
LEA schools 39.4 per cent. 86.6 per cent. 93.0 per cent.
GM schools 48.8 per cent. 91.3 per cent. 95.7 per cent.
1B: comprehensive schools only
GCSE passes 5+ A*-C 5+ A*-G 1+A-G
LEA comprehensives 38.7 per cent. 86.3 per cent. 92.9 per cent.
GM comprehensives 44.7 per cent. 90.7 per cent. 95.5 per cent.

Table 3: Percentage of 11-year-old pupils achieving national curriculum level 4 and above
Key stage 2 English Mathematics Science
TA Test TA Test TA Test
LEA schools 57 48 54 44 64 70
GM Schools 61 54 58 50 70 76

Table 4: Percentage of 14-year-olds pupils achieving national curriculum level 5 and above
English Mathematics Science
Key stage 3 TA Test TA Test TA Test
LEA schools 63 53 60 56 59 55
GM schools 70 63 68 64 66 63