Free faculty meal pupils falling additional behind their friends, report warns
Researchers have revealed the education divide was stark in the early years, with disadvantaged pupils being left in the wake of their more fortunate classmates than before the Covid pandemic
A major report reveals the education gap between disadvantaged pupils and their classmates has widened again(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Children from disadvantage families are almost two years behind their classmates by the time they sit their GCSEs, a report has found.
The Education Policy Institute (EPI) warned the divide between pupils from lower-income households and their better-off peers has widened again in England and remained larger at every stage of education than it was before the Covid pandemic.
Researchers also warned the gap in academic achievement among children in the early years was now 17% wider than it was before Covid, describing the difference as “particularly stark”. The annual report found disadvantaged pupils were, on average, 19 months behind their classmates by the time they reached Key Stage 4 and sat their GCSEs.
The Department for Education said it was working to close the gap by expanding government-funded childcare and extending eligibility for free school meals. The Mirror has long campaigned for free school meals to be available to every primary school child, welcoming Sir Keir Starmer’s expansion announced last summer.
The move extended free school meals to all children in families receiving Universal Credit in England, helping some parents save up to £500 a year marking a victory for the Mirror’s campaign to ensure no child was left hungry. Speaking after announcing the expansion, the Keir Starmer told Mirror readers: “My government will leave no stone unturned in our pursuit to give every child the best start in life.”
The Government has pledged to halve the disadvantage gap by the time the current generation of children finishes secondary school. For its analysis, the EPI compared the educational outcomes of children who had ever been eligible for free school meals with those who had not. Researchers also looked at differences by gender, ethnicity and whether pupils had special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Although attainment gaps at some stages had started to narrow after the pandemic, the report found they were widening again in the early years and at Key Stage 4. For pupils with SEND, attainment gaps narrowed among some older children but reached record levels for those with education, health and care plans (EHCPs), which set out the additional support some children are entitled to receive.
The report also found disadvantaged pupils in London continued to outperform those from similar backgrounds elsewhere in England, while the gap between disadvantage and wealthier pupils grew most sharply in the South East and South West.
Julie McCulloch, chief executive of the EPI, said: “The size of the gap between the educational outcomes of children from more and less advantaged backgrounds is a scourge on our society”.
She said the Government’s “ambitious target” to halve the gap was “right and welcome”, but added ministers needed to be “more exacting” about how they would achieve it. The government’s ambitious target to halve this gap is right and welcome”.
“However, the findings of EPI’s latest Annual Report show that, on current trends, the distance between where we are and where the government wants to be is growing, not shrinking. The next Prime Minister inherits a clear pledge and a difficult starting position.
Ms McCulloch also called on the incoming Prime Minister – most likely to be Labour’s Andy Burnham – to have a “laser-like focus” on delivering that pledge. She said: “What happens next should not be a reset or a retreat from that ambition. Instead, we need a laser-like focus on whether current structures, systems and resources are enough to actually deliver it.”
The EPI recommended widening access to funded childcare for all children and increasing the funding schools receive for pupils eligible for free school meals.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said current tests and assessments “set many students up to fail, overwhelmingly those from less advantaged backgrounds”.
He said: “Statutory testing in primary must be ended and assessment approaches in secondary must broaden beyond end-of-course exams to allow all students to achieve and thrive.”
The Local Government Association also called for more investment in the SEND workforce and a review of childcare eligibility to ensure “those on lower incomes do not miss out”.
A Government spokesperson said: “This report is further proof that the education system this government inherited entrenches disadvantage – so we are already doing whatever it takes to ensure every child has access to opportunity, regardless of their background.”
“We are delivering opportunities for every child to close the disadvantage gap – expanding government-funded childcare, extending free school meals, ending the two-child cap to help lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty and overseeing a £4 billion transformation of the SEND system.”
Last week, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the time had come to build towards a “bolder future” of “universal early years education” so disadvantaged children no longer missed out.
