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Progress 8 results 2016: Gibb hails schools for narrowing attainment gap

Schools minister Nick Gibb has praised schools for closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, as the first set of Progress 8 scores are released.

Gibb, the minister for school standards, said today’s figures show that the number of pupils taking core academic subjects is on the up.

He also praised schools for helping close the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers by seven percentage points since 2011.

“Today’s figures confirm that the hard work of teachers and pupils across the country is leading to higher standards, and for that they should be congratulated.”

This is the first year the Progress 8 measure has been reported. It replaced the five A*-C including English and maths performance headline measure.

The government said the new measure was fairer because it takes prior attainment into account and recognised the achievement of all pupils – not just those on the C/D borderline.

READ MORE: The key findings from provisional 2016 GCSE results

Provisional Progress 8 data was published in October, covered by Schools Week here, and today’s revised figures contain added characteristics data.

Gibb pointed to both converter academies and selective schools making above average progress this year.

Grammar schools posted a progress score for disadvantaged pupils of 0.13, way above the Progress 8 average of -0.31 for poorer pupils in state-funded mainstream schools.

But a separate Schools Week investigation of the data, published today, has found not all of the government’s flagship schools shape up as well in educating poorer pupils.

Gibb also highlighted that just 282 secondaries (9.3%) fell below the floor standard – down from the 329 (11%) under last year’s floor standard.

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