New report reveals shocking gap in performance by schools

A major new report from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, the UK's official monitor of progress in making the country a fairer place, calls on schools to do more to improve exam results for poorer children.

It shows that overall results for disadvantaged children remain shockingly low but that some schools in highly disadvantaged areas have cracked the code on how to improve social mobility. They are successfully challenging the decades old assumption that wealthier children will naturally excel while poorer children leap ahead - and weaker schools can learn from them.

The Cracking the code report demonstrates that:

Schools could do much better for poor children

• Only two out of five disadvantaged children get five good GCSEs, compared to more than two thirds of other children.
• But in one in nine English secondary schools disadvantaged children get better results than the national average for all children.
• If other schools closed half this gap with the best, 14,000 more disadvantaged students would get five good GCSEs a year, a 25 per cent improvement.
• If all secondary schools closed half the gap with the best performing school with a similar ability intake (based on Key Stage 2 tests at age 11), 60,000 more low attaining students would get five good GCSEs a year, a 19 per cent increase.

Low expectations among some teachers may be a barrier

• New polling of more than 1,100 teachers carried out for the Commission found that most have high expectations of their pupils. But one in five (21 per cent) agreed that colleagues at their school have lower expectations of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In secondaries the number rose to 26 per cent.
• Just 15 per cent of teachers said they would actively seek out a role in a school that was more challenging than their current school, with over half (53 per cent) agreeing that the pressure of working in a weaker school would be a deterrent, unless there were mitigating factors.
• Almost two thirds (63 per cent) identified a salary increase as a factor that might make them more interested in securing a role in a weaker school.

New league tables underline the case for change

• From 2016 new school performance measures raise the bar on subject choice and qualification quality, making it harder for schools to 'game' results. New Commission analysis shows that the new system will lead to 8 per cent of secondary schools falling far down the league table rankings, including a fifth of schools in the North East. The schools with the biggest falls are those with the greatest proportion of disadvantaged students.

Weaker schools can learn from the 'code-breakers': those doing well for poor children.

• Five key steps that the code breaking schools take that other schools can follow are:
• Using the Pupil Premium strategically to tackle the barriers to attainment.
• Building a high-expectations culture.
• Incessant focus on quality of teaching.
• Tailored strategies to engage parents.
• Preparing students for life, not just exams.

Commenting on the findings the Chair of the Commission, Alan Milburn said: "Social mobility in Britain is low and is stalling. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in education. It has long been known that there is a massive gap in attainment between advantaged and disadvantaged students. This research has unearthed a new and shocking gap in performance between similar schools serving similar communities with similar intakes of poorer pupils. But some schools are proving that deprivation needn't be destiny. They have cracked the code on how to improve social mobility by helping disadvantaged children to excel in education. If some schools can do it, there is no excuse for others not to."

Continuing Mr Milburn said: "By following the lead of the code-breakers schools can transform the lives of tens of thousands more disadvantaged children. Headteachers and governors have a responsibility to ensure that every teacher in every school has uniformly high expectations of their students. Our polling suggests though the vast majority of teachers expect the best from every pupil, regardless of background, but in some schools low expectations of disadvantaged students remains a problem."

Responding to today's report Shadow Education Secretary, Tristram Hunt, commented: "On David Cameron's watch, the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers has widened. This report gives a damning verdict of the Tory-led government's failures in education. Improving the quality of the teacher in the classroom is crucial for improving the learning outcomes for all children. But Cameron changed the rules to allow unqualified teachers into the classroom, leading to a 16% rise in the last year alone."

Tristram Hunt continued: "Labour will end Cameron's watering down of teaching standards. We will deliver a qualified teacher in every classroom and require all teachers to undertake training on an ongoing basis as a condition to remaining in the classroom. We will raise standards, rejecting Cameron's low expectations."