Faith schools do better than their secular counterparts at GCSE but the gap is much narrower when it comes to A-levels, education junior minister Ivan Lewis has told Parliament.
This year 55.3 per cent of pupils at religious schools got five or more A*-C grade GCSEs compared to 47.8 per cent in other state schools. The gap has widened slightly since 1997.
At A-level, the average point score for pupils entered for two or more AS or A-levels has been almost equal for faith and non-faith schools since 1997. However, in 2001, a new way of measuring the scores was introduced to take account of the new AS-levels and this shows faith schools outperforming their secular counterparts (see panel, left).
Ivan Lewis was responding to a question from Conservative MP Mark Hoban.
