Research exposes '˜great injustice' of inequality gulf within schools

The research from the Government’s Social Mobility Commission has revealed children from less privileged backgrounds are not as likely to make good progress at secondary school than pupils from wealthier families and are often overtaken even if they outperformed them at primary school.

The commission warned that the secondary school drop-off means poor children are failing to finish school with the qualifications to succeed in life and creating a huge injustice in the education system.

The study has shown that the gap between poor pupils’ attainment at the end of primary school and the end of secondary school has widened – since 2012 pupils from low-income families have made less progress year-on-year than more affluent peers.

The Social Mobility Commission’s chairman and former Labour Cabinet Minister Alan Milburn said: “One of the shocking features of our education system is that the gap between poor pupils and their better-off peers increases during their time in school rather than reducing.

“This new research suggests that the progress they make in primary school is all but wiped out during secondary. The consequence is that successive generations of poor kids are being let down by a school system that is supposed to be there to help them move up and get on.

“This is not just an issue for the Government. If social mobility is to improve, schools need to do more to bridge the education attainment divide between poorer children and their better-off classmates. Closing the gap needs to be top of mind for every teacher in every school.

“The Government can help by setting an explicit target for narrowing the attainment gap at GCSE and by doing more to get the best teachers into the toughest secondary schools.”

Headteachers told the researchers that reduced school funding was already putting pupils’ progress at risk and that prospects for improvement were “bleak” despite the Government’s new proposed funding formula.

The gap is most pronounced for poor white children, with most low-income ethnic minority groups making progress in line with the national average for all pupils, partly because ethnic minority parents provide more effective home support.

The research found that most of the gap – 88 per cent – in progress stems from differences in achievement between children at the same school rather than variations between different schools – which accounted for just 12 per cent of the difference.

Part of the problem is the treatment of children on free school meals, who are more likely to be placed in lower sets, have access to less qualified teachers and have lower expectations set for them by schools, the research found. Children on free school meals achieve almost half a GCSE grade less progress in core subjects than better-off pupils, the report said.

Home life also has a “big impact”, with poorer children less likely to benefit from effective homework routines, access to books and computers or cultural and sporting experiences.