What effect did mobility have on pupil progress and attainment?
A broad analysis of the data showed that pupil mobility during the first three years of school was associated with significantly lower levels of pupil attainment in the reading, writing and mathematics national curriculum tests at age seven. A greater proportion of the mobile group achieved grades below level 2c, whilst a greater proportion of the stable group achieved grades 2b or above. But when the researcher probed more deeply, the relatively low attainment of mobile pupils at age seven was found to be strongly associated with other disadvantaging factors in their background and environment. Mobile pupils were significantly more likely than stable pupils to: • be entitled to free school meals; • have a higher incidence of special educational needs; • have English as an additional language; • need higher levels of support in learning English; and • be frequently absent from school. Furthermore, many of the new entrants in the local education authority concerned were refugees and asy
