Schools and colleges

The attainment gap is the difference in educational outcomes between students from more and less affluent backgrounds. Research has consistently shown that more disadvantaged children have lower educational outcomes compared to their peers from wealthier backgrounds. The attainment gap had been gradually decreasing throughout the early 2010s, before progress stalled in the years before the pandemic. Since then, the gap has widened considerably, with 10 years of progress now wiped out. Our General Election Briefing sets out a 10-point plan to help close the attainment gap.

It is particularly important that work is done to take poverty out of the classroom. Expanding free school meal eligibility to all children on Universal Credit and increasing breakfast club provision would go a long way in ensuring no child is hungry in school.

• Closing the attainment gap (2024)
• Social mobility: The next generation – Lost potential at age 16 (2023)
• Cost of living and education (2022)

Investing in high-quality teaching is the most effective way to improve the attainment of pupils. Yet schools serving disadvantaged communities are more likely to be staffed by teachers without qualified teacher status, with fewer years of experience and by non-specialist science and maths teachers.

The government should monitor social inequalities in teacher recruitment and make sure that schools in poorer communities have well-qualified and experienced staff. School should spend their pupil premium funds on recruiting, retaining and developing their teachers.

• Making the grade (2019)
• The recruitment gap (2019)
• Science shortfall (2017)
• What makes great teaching? (2014)
• Sutton Trust/EEF Teaching and learning toolkit

Tutoring is a well-evidenced and highly effective intervention to boost learning. However, there are large gaps in access to private tutoring by socio-economic background. 39% of pupils in the best-off homes had ever received private tutoring compared to just 22% in the worst-off homes. The government’s National Tutoring Programme has had a big impact on levelling the playing field by socio-economic background, with 35% of working-class Year 11 students received private or school-based tutoring, compared to 36% of students from professional homes. New data shows that 27% of pupils on free school meals received tutoring from their school in 2023.

Funding for the National Tutoring Programme is due to end in July 2024. There is a real risk that without continued funding, the huge progress that has been made on access to tutoring through schools will be lost, and a vital means of narrowing the attainment gap squandered. The Sutton Trust is calling for the National Tutoring Programme to be renewed with ringfenced funding for the long-term, and it should be focused on supporting disadvantaged pupils.

• Closing the attainment gap (2024)
• Tutoring: The new landscape (2023)

Funding levels do not match the needs of schools, particularly those serving the most deprived communities. To correct this, the government should reform the National Funding Formula to rebalance funding back towards schools serving the most disadvantaged communities.

The government should also reverse the real terms erosion of Pupil Premium funding, restoring funding to 2014/15 levels by the end of the parliamentary term. This would benefit 2.1m disadvantaged pupils.

• School funding and pupil premium (2024)

State schools should be funded and incentivised to develop essential life skills in their students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, both in and out of the classroom.

The development of life skills should be embedded in day-to-day teaching, with dedicated time allocated within the curriculum and classroom strategies such as small-group learning.

Outside of the school gates, access to extracurricular activities is limited for those who cannot afford to pay. Schools should also focus on ensuring a wider range of their pupils develop a broad array of non-academic skills through extra-curricular enrichment activities such as debating, cultural visits and volunteering.

• Life lessons (2017)

Education is about more than just exam results. Adult life requires a range of skills in order for people to flourish, both in the workplace and in their daily lives, from the confidence and motivation to seek challenges and complete tasks, to the interpersonal skills that aid teamwork and other social interactions. Essential life skills such as motivation, confidence, communication, self-control and coping with stress are crucial to the life chances of young people. In a jobs market where these skills are increasingly valued by employers, more needs to be done to give all young people a chance to develop them.

State schools should be funded and incentivised to develop essential life skills in their students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, both in and out of the classroom.

The development of life skills should be embedded in day-to-day teaching, with dedicated time allocated within the curriculum, classroom strategies such as
small-group learning, alongside access to extracurricular activities.

LIFE LESSONS (2017)

Outside of the school gates, access to extracurricular activities is limited for those who cannot afford to pay. Addressing these access gaps is key to ensuring all young people receive the education they need to reach their potential.

Schools should focus on ensuring a wider range of their pupils develop a broad array of non-academic skills, through both classroom strategies and extra-curricular enrichment activities such as debating, cultural visits and volunteering.

LIFE LESSONS (2017)

EXTRA-CURRICULAR INEQUALITY (2014)