It comes after the third annual “state of the nation” report from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission called for a ”zero-tolerance” approach to schools that consistently fail to meet floor standards.
The document highlights that low-ability children from wealthy homes continue to overtake high-ability disadvantaged children during their time in school, while only 24 per cent of poor White British boys gain five good GCSEs against the national average of 57 per cent.
It has challenged the government to learn from the successes of the London challenge and to raise the attainment of poor children across the country to the current rate of inner London schools by 2030 – this would reduce the national attainment gap by two-thirds.
However, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has been angered by the Commission’s call for “zero-tolerance”, while the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has called on the government to do more to tackle the root causes of poverty.
The report states: “We call for a new zero-tolerance approach to schools that consistently fail to meet the government’s floor standards by requiring them to become part of an academy chain, to change their leadership and to use a new cadre of headteachers with experience of successfully turning around schools to lead those that are failing.”
The current floor standard is 40 per cent of pupils achieving five A* to C GCSEs, including English and maths.
However, ASCL general secretary Brian Lightman says that the issues are much more complex than this and fears that a blame culture will not achieve the change the Commission is looking for.
He said: “We welcome the Commission’s focus on closing the disadvantage gap. Schools and colleges across the country work incredibly hard to do exactly that and would welcome more support for their efforts. We agree that more needs to be done on a society-wide basis to give all children the best possible opportunities in life.
“The Commission recommends a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to schools which ‘consistently fail’ to meet floor standards. In fact, this is already the case and schools are subject to extremely strict accountability measures. A new discourse is required to drive further improvement. It is time to recognise that these are complex issues, which require a more strategic approach rather than a blame culture.
“Where problems exist we need a detailed understanding of the reasons and we need to develop solutions which specifically address them. This process requires a significant investment in time and funding.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, said that their members are still seeing children coming to school hungry, with many families living in poverty despite being in work.
He continued: “The government’s failure to address the unacceptable levels of poverty in this country is a betrayal, not only of this generation, but of future generations too. The fact that two-thirds of children growing up in poverty live in a family where at least one member works is a shocking indictment.
“Teachers are seeing pupils coming to school hungry; many will also be tired and cold due to inadequate heating and clothing. Frequently, teachers are supporting children by bringing in food. This is a heart-breaking situation and should not be allowed to happen in one of the richest countries in the world. It is a situation which clearly has an impact on children’s learning. This plain fact needs to be accepted and addressed.”
Elsewhere, the Commission also calls for action on teacher recruitment, including improving teacher pay to compete with other graduate employers, scrapping fees for initial teacher training, and trialling new incentives to encourage teachers to move to challenging schools – including a teachers’ “Help to Buy” scheme.
You can download the Commission’s report at www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-of-the-nation-2015