§ Lord Moynihanasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress has been made in raising the academic achievement of specialist sports colleges. [HL2053]
§ Baroness Ashton of UphollandSince 1999, the average GCSE 5 + A to C performance of sports colleges has risen from 41 per cent to 48 per cent. This means that sports colleges are raising attainment at a higher rate than the national average (17 per cent increase compared to 10 per cent). This is in spite of the fact that a large proportion of sports colleges are in areas of social disadvantage, with 44 per cent of all sports colleges having a higher than average proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals. In addition, average value added in sports colleges was higher in 2003 than in 2002 at both key stages 2–3 and 3–4.
Another measure of specialist schools' performance is Professor David Jesson's 2003 study of educational outcomes, which uses slightly different measures. This suggests that whole school 5 + A to C GCSE performance in sports colleges is on average I percentage point higher than the average for mainstream maintained secondary schools.