School performance 2011 - The truth!

Last week, the Department for Education published data on more than 3,300 secondary schools' GCSE and A-Level exam results. Now parents have more information than ever about how their child's school is performing, this is an increase of data of 400 per cent than in 2010.

Performance tables for 2011 now include:

• level of performance of disadvantaged children.
• if pupils with high, middle and low achieving results continue to make progress.
• how many pupils entered into the core academic subjects that make up the EBacc.

Sadly, the 2011 GCSE results reveal that hundreds of secondary schools are failing to help pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve their full potential. Children on free school meals or in local authority care are approximately half as likely to achieve the national benchmark of five A* -C grade GCSEs including English and maths compared to their peers.

Nationally, only one in 25 disadvantaged pupils managed to secure good grades in a combination of English, maths, languages, history or geography, and two sciences. This compares to the national average of nearly one in six.

For the first time, the tables highlight how pupils have progressed since they left primary school. This year's statistics show that thousands of previously high achieving pupils are being failed by their secondary school:

• 8.600 pupils, 4.9 per cent, who were excelling at the end of primary school, then failed to gain five A* -C grade including English and maths.
• 45.6 per cent of pupils, some 120,000, who were at Level 4 at Key Stage 2 failed to make the expected amount of progress, to five A*-C grades including English and maths, at secondary school.
• There are now 107 secondary schools below the national minimum standard.

A secondary school is below the floor standard if:

• fewer than 35 per cent of pupils achieve the basics standard of five A* to C grade GCSEs including English and maths.
• fewer pupils make good progress in English between KS2 and KS4 than the national average.
• fewer pupils make good progress in maths between KS2 and KS4 than the national average.

Find out how your child's school performs here.

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