Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve GCSE pass rates among pupils eligible for free school meals in the Ashfield constituency.

The ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ White Paper sets out our plans to build a system that supports every child to achieve and thrive.

It sets a clear path to raising standards and broadens children’s education. This includes a refreshed curriculum, improved transitions and an enrichment entitlement for every child.

To help improve GCSE outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, we are driving standards through new RISE teams, a refreshed high-quality curriculum and assessment system, recruiting 6,500 additional teachers and piloting a new place‑based Headteacher Retention Incentive to attract and support headteachers in the areas that need them most.

Additionally, in the 2026/27 financial year, £3.2 billion of pupil premium funding will support improved outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, and the National Funding Formula will allocate £5.6 billion according to deprivation. We are also developing a new model to better target disadvantage funding at the most entrenched need.

When this generation finishes secondary school, our ambition is for all pupils to reach at least a grade 5 across their GCSEs and for the disadvantage gap to be halved, with 30,000 more disadvantaged pupils passing English and maths GCSEs.