Parts of the country where disadvantaged pupils perform worse at school are more likely to have large populations of poor white children, a new report suggests.

The Institute for Government (IfG) think tank finds that disadvantaged white pupils in England have “particularly poor educational outcomes”.

An analysis by the IfG looks at the “high impact” group of pupils - those for whom disadvantage disproportionately affects their performance - which it says is made up mostly of white British pupils.

Local authority areas in the bottom fifth for the performance of disadvantaged pupils were “disproportionately likely” to have “above average” shares of pupils from the high impact group (or from white backgrounds), it says.

The IfG analysis comes after education secretary Bridget Phillipson said it was a “national disgrace” that so many white, working-class children were being “written off” in the education system.

Tackling pupil absence ‘is key’

Tens of thousands of students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to receive their GCSE results on Thursday.

Many of those waiting for their exam results this week were in Year 6 when schools closed as a result of the Covid pandemic.

The IfG report analyses pupil performance at key stage 2 (Year 6) - the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths - at a local authority level to try to understand local variation.

It suggests that educational inequalities have “grown wider and more pronounced” across England and among demographic groups since Covid.

The think tank says tackling high levels of absence - particularly among disadvantaged pupils - is “key” to narrowing educational inequalities.

Recent Department for Education figures show that the number of children in England classed as “severely absent”, which means they missed at least half of possible school sessions, rose to nearly 150,000 in autumn 2024.

Government ‘lacks clear vision’

Amber Dellar, IfG researcher and author of the report, said: “The pandemic has undone much of the last decade’s progress in tackling educational inequalities, leaving some areas and groups of children far behind.

“The government’s opportunity mission is a good starting point for narrowing the gaps, but it lacks a clear vision or plan for delivering that goal in schools.”

Ms Phillipson told the PA news agency that her focus will be on closing the attainment gap between white working-class pupils and their peers.

Only 18.6 per cent of white British students eligible for free school meals achieved at least a grade 5 - which is considered a “strong pass” - in their English and maths GCSEs in 2023-24, compared with 45.9 per cent of all state school students in England.

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