It's nine o'clock in the morning and pupils are arriving at Bonner Primary School in Tower Hamlets, the borough with the highest child poverty rates in London. The sound of children singing Happy Birthday rings out from the breakfast club, while outside a teacher chats amiably to a child about the need to wish people good morning. Then comes a thunderous noise of little feet and excited chatter as the children head to assembly.
Last month, the government's poverty tsar Frank Field hit out at the "gobsmacking" figures that show how between the ages of five and 10, high-performing children from less well-off backgrounds lose ground on those from richer families. In all, poor children are 25 times less likely to make it to a top university than their peers at private school.
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