§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, and if so by how much, specialist schools achieve higher marks at GCSE in the subjects in which they specialise than in other subjects; and whether those subjects are more popular in such schools than they are in state schools as a whole. [HL1990]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Baroness Ashton of Upholland)The information requested on GCSE achievements in specialist schools, and on the popularity of the specialist subjects in specialist schools compared with all state schools, is shown below:
"Achievement" "Popularity" % of entries resulting in grades A *—C Specialist schools subject entries as a % of all entries Specialist schools subject entries as a % of all entries All state schools1 LANGUAGE (126) Any language 61 12 10 All other subjects 64 88 90 TECHNOLOGY (366) Any technology subjects 55 46 44 All other subjects 60 54 56 ARTS (91) Any arts subjects 64 9 7 All other subjects 51 91 93 SPORT (101) Any PE subject 54 3 2 All other subjects 51 97 98 Notes: 1Including specialist and non-specialist mainstream schools and special maintained schools. Figures in brackets indicate the number of specialist schools in each category.