Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on closing the attainment gap between pupils receiving free school meals and others; and if she will make a statement.

The gap between free school meals (FSM) pupils and others achieving Level 4 or above in key stage 2 reading and mathematics has narrowed from 19.3 to 16.2 percentage points between 2011 and 2013. The gap in FSM pupils and others achieving at least five A*-C grade GCSEs including English and mathematics has narrowed from 27.4 to 26.7 percentage points over the same period.

The most recent Ofsted assessment is that school leaders are spending the pupil premium more effectively than at any time since the funding was introduced in 2011. Of 151 schools in the assessment, the attainment gap between free school meal pupils and their peers was closing, sometimes quite quickly, in all 86 schools judged by Ofsted to be good or outstanding. Gaps are also closing, albeit more slowly, in two thirds of the 50 sampled schools rated ‘requires improvement’.