CYP Now - High-achieving disadvantaged five-year-olds fall behind peers by age 14, study warns

Children who are classed as high achieving at the age of five, but from less affluent backgrounds, are less likely to achieve the highest grades at GCSE compared with their wealthier peers, new research has found.

Young people from low-income backgrounds struggle more once they reach secondary school. Picture: Adobe Stock/ andov

The study from University College London (UCL) was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and tracked high-ability children from the age of five.

It used the data of high and low income children from the Millennium Cohort Study – a project following 19,000 young people born across the United Kingdom between 2000-2002.

While the cognitive skills of high-ability low-income children keep pace with their more affluent peers till the age of 11, their abilities “sharply diverge” in secondary school, according to researchers. Disadvantaged children are almost certain to achieve a C in English language and maths at GCSE, but fail to achieve the highest grades.

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