These disadvantaged students are twice as likely to drop-out of the top-third of GCSE attainment, getting a whole grade lower per-subject on average than their most affluent peers.
Furthermore, the high-potential disadvantaged children most likely to fall behind at GCSE include white boys and black Caribbean pupils, those with SEN, and those living in the North East and North West of England.
A study from the Sutton Trust (Holt-White & Cullinane, 2023) has added yet more weight to the growing evidence-based showing the stark impact that disadvantage has on educational attainment for our poorest students.
In 2021, for example, the research finds that 62% of better-off high-potential pupils got five or more 7 to 9 grades at GCSE, compared to less than 40% of high-potential children who were disadvantaged.
This equates to 7,000 learners. Over five years – from 2017 to 2021 – it equates to more than 28,000.
The research also looks at some of the factors involved. It finds that these highly able disadvantaged children, when compared to other wealthier high-attainers, are:
- More than three times more likely to lack a suitable device to study at home.
- Twice as likely to lack a suitable place to study.
- Less than half as likely to receive private tutoring compared to other high attainers.
- Three times more like to be a young carer (16% vs 5%).
- Less than half as likely to have a parent with a degree.
- Four times more likely to live in a single-parent household.
Entitled Social mobility: The next generation, the report looks at a group of almost 2,249 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who showed high academic potential at the end of key stage 2.
It explores the progress of this group during their secondary school education in comparison to non-disadvantaged peers with the same grades.
The Sutton Trust is concerned because while the disadvantage gap is evident from a very early age, the gap accelerates during secondary school. By the time these students take their GCSEs they are three-quarters of a grade per-subject behind their similarly able peers, and they are a whole grade behind the most affluent students with similar ability.
The research measures gaps at GCSE using the Attainment 8 score based on a student’s best eight grades (including English and maths), converting it to an average grade per-subject.
The report calls for an “urgent review” of government funding for schools in the most disadvantaged areas of the country. It also wants to see the National Tutoring Programme made a “core part of a national strategy to close attainment gaps” and a reform of school admissions.
Elsewhere, the report recommends that universities make better use of contextual admissions which aim to support social mobility by including reduced grade offers reflecting the truth that disadvantaged students with high potential often underperform in the school system.
At a school level, the report offers 10 tips including including early identification and tracking of highly able disadvantaged students, provision of targeted support including mentoring and tutoring, a focus on family engagement, use of the Pupil Premium, and giving a team of staff “collective responsibility for implementing programmes and practices for the highly able”.
Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust, said: “It’s tragic that the talent of so many youngsters showing early promise is being allowed to go to waste. This is not only grossly unfair, damaging the life changes of young people, but by wasting their talent we’re also damaging the country.
“The government needs to increase funding in the most disadvantaged areas such as by means of the highly effective National Tutoring Programme. There is a sense that bright young people can look after themselves, but this is patently a myth. These young people need as much nurturing as the average youngster.”
Commenting on the report, Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The Sutton Trust report should provide sobering reading for a government which has obsessed with inspections, performance tables and metrics of all descriptions, rather than on the investment that is needed to support every young person, regardless of background.
“The challenges facing disadvantaged young people start early in life and continue throughout schooling and beyond. As a result, the attainment gap with other children widens throughout their education. To close this gap, there must be greater investment and support for schools and colleges in general, and particularly those in disadvantaged areas facing the greatest challenges.
“The government could not even manage to resist strangling its own National Tutoring Programme with red tape – including expecting schools to top up funding with money they don’t have. As a result, the coverage is patchy, at best, and there is little chance of it being embedded in any long-term strategy for education.”
- Holt-White & Cullinane: Social mobility: The next generation, The Sutton Trust, June 2023: https://bit.ly/3qZ0EE2