---

Pupil Mobility

Answer

We have been considering with our education partners, including representatives of head teachers and local authorities, whether there should be a mobility factor in the national school funding distribution formula, because of schools in some areas facing higher levels of pupil turnover than in others. We expect to announce our decisions on this issue soon. Local authorities are already allowed to take account of mobility in their funding formulae for schools.This work has not included consideration of the costs to schools of high levels of pupil mobility or the impact of pupil mobility on other children in affected schools. We have not commissioned any research looking specifically at the impact of pupil mobility on others, but we did commission a research study ““Pupil Mobility in Schools—Dobson et al 1999—DfEE research report number 168”” which investigated the general issue of pupil mobility.In the current primary school achievement and attainment tables, a mobility indicator is provided alongside each school's value added measure. This provides context for the value added measure by showing the extent to which pupils eligible for the key stage 2 tests were not in the school for the whole of their key stage 2 education.In the secondary tables, a pilot of ““contextual value added”” is taking place in 2005. This will directly take account of a range of contextual factors which are outside the school's control and which are correlated with outcomes even after taking account of prior attainment. Mobility will be one of the factors included, since pupils who move between schools outside of normal transitions make lower progress than non-mobile pupils. A similar pilot is planned for primary schools in 2006.The Department does not collect information from individual schools that is specifically about pupil mobility. However pupils' dates of entry to schools are collected as part of the Pupil Level Annual Schools census. Based upon these dates of entry various mobility rates can be calculated depending upon the definition used.The Department published a school level mobility indicator as part of the 2004 Primary School (Key Stage 2) Achievement and Attainment Tables.This indicator shows the percentage of pupils who were registered at the school for their entire key stage 2 education. However, this indicator has not been defined or calculated at LEA level.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

10749; 436 c1236-7W;436 c1236-7W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Pupils Migration