To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his latest estimates are of the proportion of pupils in academies obtaining (a) five or more A* to C GCSEs and (b) five or more A* to C GCSEs, including Mathematics and English. (170196)

The amended Key Stage 4 results for 2007 show that, excluding former CTCs, a total of 36 academies have GCSE results for 2007. The percentage of pupils in academies with five or more grades A*-C in 2007 was 43.7 per cent.; and the percentage with five or more grades A*-C including English and maths was 25.2 per cent.

For the 20 academies with results in both 2006 and 2007 the percentage achieving five plus A*-C increased by 8.1 percentage points which is more than three times the increase of 2.6 percentage points seen nationally (maintained, mainstream, CTCs and academies). If English and maths are included, results in academies have risen by 5.1 percentage points which is two and a half times greater than the increase of 1.8 percentage points seen nationally.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many academies have performance figures for five or more GCSE exams at grades A* to C, including mathematics and English, of below 30 per cent. in the most recent year for which figures are available. (163310)

The latest school level GCSE data are for 2007. In that year, 26 out of the 40 academies with results had less than 30 per cent. of their pupils achieving five+ A* to C including English and maths.

Results for 2006 showed that 18 out of the 24 academies that had results in that year had less than 30 per cent. of their pupils achieving five+ A* to C including English and maths.