Challenges facing schoolsand young peopleThe gap in outcomes between children and youngpeople from lower-income backgrounds and theirpeers has long been a stubborn and unfair featureTheneedof the UK’s education system.16Tutor Trust Impact Report 2022/20231 Fair Education Alliance, 2023Manifesto at https://static1.squarespace.com/static/543e665de4b0fbb2b140b291/t/651a8af662c10a6513ddca6e/1696238329538/Fair+Education+Manifesto+2023.pdf p122 Education Policy Institute,Covid-19 and DisadvantageGaps in England, December2022 at https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Covid19_2021_Disadvantage_Gaps_in_England.pdf p83 DfE, Key Stage 2 Attainment2022/23 at https://exploreeducation-statistics.service.gov.uk/昀椀nd-statistics/key-stage-2attainment4 Both from DfE, ‘Key Stage 4performance’ at https://exploreeducation-statistics.service.gov.uk/昀椀nd-statistics/key-stage-4performance-revised5 ibid6 ibid* We’re using this word as it’sthe word used by the DfE, butit’s not a word we like. Find outwhy on page 19Young people who have been eligible forFree School Meals at any point in the pastsix years on average achieve lower resultsat every stage of their education than theirpeers. As they move through school, thegap widens rather than narrows. By thetime they leave school, these young peopleare around 1.34 grades behind their peersin English and Maths. The gap is biggerfor those young people who have beenconsistently eligible for Free School Mealsthroughout their education, with thesepupils around 1.7 grades behind.2The pandemic made the gap grow widerstill; it grew to its widest level in a decade in2022 and does not seem to have narrowedmuch this year, with the gap at attainmentin SATs almost identical in 2023 to 2022.In 2023:• 44% of ‘disadvantaged’* pupils reachedthe expected standard in reading, writingand Maths in Year 63• 66% of other, ‘non-disadvantaged’pupils did so• The Key Stage 4 disadvantage gap haswidened further since 2022, and nowstands at 3.95 – the highest level since20114• 25% of disadvantaged pupils achievedGrade 5 or above in both English andMaths, compared with 52.2% of nondisadvantaged pupils.5There’s a regional element to this too; withhigher concentrations of poverty than otherareas, young people in Northern townsand cities are less likely to achieve resultsthat unlock higher education and futureopportunities. The average Attainment 8score for young people in Knowsley is 33.2 –the lowest in the whole country.6 In Sutton,South London, it’s 59.8, meaning that youngpeople here average around three GCSEgrades higher per subject.The cost-of-living crisis has piled pressureon families and, sadly, has hit hardeston those families who were alreadyexperiencing poverty. School leadersreport that cost-of-living pressures haveincreased both the number of pupilsrequiring additional support, and theirlevel of need, and they have also notedincreases in safeguarding concerns,behaviour incidents and absenteeism,particularly in secondary schools and inschools serving low-income communities.7Children and young people are struggling:one in six children aged 5-16 are likely to
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