Progress 8
A measure of how much progress pupils make from the end of primary to the end of GCSE, expressed as a score around zero.
Progress 8 is the headline measure of how much progress pupils make between the end of primary school and the end of GCSE.
Each pupil’s GCSE results are compared with the average results of similar pupils nationally - those who started Year 7 at the same attainment level. The school’s Progress 8 score is the average of those individual gaps.
The score is centred around zero:
- 0 = the school’s pupils did about as well as similar pupils nationally
- +0.5 = pupils did half a grade better than expected on average
- -0.5 = pupils did half a grade worse than expected
- +1.0 or above = exceptional and very rare
Why it matters: a leafy-suburb grammar will always have high Attainment 8 because its pupils started high. Progress 8 strips out intake bias and asks "what did the school add?" - which is closer to "school quality" than the headline result.
A school with average Attainment 8 but Progress 8 of +0.5 is doing genuinely impressive work. A grammar with high Attainment 8 but Progress 8 of zero is coasting on its intake.
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More terms starting with P
Pastoral Care
The non-academic support a school provides for pupils' wellbeing, behaviour and personal development.
Persistent Absence
A pupil missing 10% or more of possible school sessions in an academic year.
Pupil Premium
Additional funding paid to schools to support pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.