Academies

Paul Holmes
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many National Challenge schools are academy schools.

Mr. Coaker
Based on the most recently available GCSE results (2008), there are 32 academies below the National Challenge benchmark of at least 30 per cent. of KS4 pupils achieving five A*-C grade GCSEs including English and maths. An updated figure will be available in January 2010 when the validated 2009 GCSE results are published.