Disadvantaged high-achievers missing out on top grades, report warns
Joe Lepper
Thursday, June 29, 2023
A report is warning that thousands of disadvantaged pupils with high academic potential are failing to get good GCSE grades compared with those with similar abilities from more affluent backgrounds.
Groups of high potential disadvantaged pupils most likely to fall behind during their schooling include white boys, black Caribbean pupils, those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and children in the north of England, the report found.
It has revealed that more than three in five affluent high potential pupils got five or more 7-9 grades at GCSE in 2021.
However, among high potential disadvantaged children the proportion plummets to two in five.
It is estimated that more than 28,000 disadvantaged young people, who would have been expected to achieve top GCSE grades between 2017 and 2021, did not do so.
The findings have emerged in a report by the Sutton Trust looking into “social mobility and wasted potential”. This study looked at a group of around 2,500 high achieving disadvantaged pupils from the end of primary school through secondary school and compares their grades with their more affluent peers of similar ability.
The Trust is concerned that inequality in academic attainment accelerates significantly during secondary school. It found that high potential students fall behind their more affluent high achieving peers by three quarters of a grade per subject on average. Compared with the most affluent they fall back by a whole grade.
Factors behind this accelerated inequality include lack of devices, such as laptops, and places to study at home. Disadvantaged pupils are more than three times more likely to lack a suitable device at home and twice as likely to struggle to find a quiet place to study.
Another group impacted is young carers. The Trust found that high potential disadvantaged pupils are three times more likely to have caring duties than other high attainers.
Disadvantaged high achievers are also four times more likely to live in a single parent household and less than half as likely to have a parent with a degree, compared to their more affluent peers with similar potential.
🚨 NEW: Over 28,000 disadvantaged pupils who might have been expected to achieve top grades at GCSE did not do so between 2017 and 2021.
— The Sutton Trust (@suttontrust) June 29, 2023
Our new research reveals the extent to which the talent of high-potential disadvantaged young people is being wasted ⤵️ 🧵 pic.twitter.com/m5OSRcG9Wj
“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,” said Sutton Trust chair Peter Lampl.
The Sutton Trust is calling on the government to ramp up its National Tutoring Programme that was brought in as part of efforts to help pupils catch up with learning after Covid-19 lockdowns. It wants to see the programme become “a core part of a national strategy to close attainment gaps”.
Increased funding for schools in disadvantaged areas is also needed and the Trust is calling on universities to reduce their focus on grade offers to help disadvantaged pupils with high potential who underperform at school.
“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,” added Lampl.
Meanwhile, MPs are calling for primary school pupils to be given advice about careers to “raise aspirations and break down negative stereotypes about gender and background”.
An education committee inquiry into the quality of careers education in schools and colleges is calling for an updated careers strategy from government with “clear and measurable targets and actions”.
Committee chair Robin Walker called for careers education to be incorporated into training for teachers and SENCOs.
“High quality careers education that is tailored to pupils’ needs is more important than ever and supporting the whole teaching workforce to deliver it is essential if the full benefits are to be realised,” he said.
