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GCSE: Disadvantaged

Volume 505: debated on Wednesday 3 February 2010

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of white (a) boys and (b) girls eligible for free school meals at the end of key stage 4 did not achieve an A* to C grade at GCSE in (i) English, (ii) mathematics, (iii) history, (iv) French and (v) physics in (A) the earliest year and (B) the most recent year for which figures are available. (310105)

[holding answer 11 January 2010]: Pupil level attainment data by free school meal eligibility and ethnicity is only available from 2003 onwards. The information requested is presented in the following table and is for maintained schools only.

SubjectNumber of white pupils1 eligible for free-school meals entered for subject not achieving a GCSE grade A*-CPercentage of white pupils eligible for free-school meals entered for subject not achieving a GCSE grade A*-C

Boys

Girls

Boys

Girls

2003

English

19,586

16,046

76.8

61.7

Mathematics

21,837

21,423

81.8

81.5

History

3,631

3,656

71.5

67.9

French

7,391

8,011

86.5

75.5

Physics

119

131

32.6

43.1

20092

English

15,398

13,245

69.8

57.4

Mathematics

14,748

15,766

65.2

68.4

History

2,791

2,557

64.5

58.7

French

1,450

2,019

63.6

57.7

Physics

164

145

17.5

19.0

1 Figures for 2003 are based on pupils aged 15 and 2009 figures are based on pupils at the end of Key Stage 4.

2 Figures for 2009 are provisional.

Source:

National Pupil Database