§ Mr. WillisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to reform school performance tables to allow schools to omit from their statistics those children who have been disregarded from SATs and public examinations by virtue of a statement of special educational needs. [75206]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeWe have no current plans to treat pupils with special educational needs differently in performance tables. The inclusion of such pupils is supported by the Government's National Advisory Group on SEN.
Many pupils with special educational needs are academically able or on a par with other pupils, and to ignore their achievements would be wrong. Schools do face particular challenges, however, in achieving results in line with national expectations for most pupils with special educational needs. The performance tables include information on the number of such pupils on roll, so that this can be taken into account in evaluating school performance.