disadvantaged pupils | Schools Week

Link family income data to pupil attainment, says EPI

Think tank warns changing profile of group eligible for free school meals mean it’s not a simple metric for disadvantage

The Brexit ‘minefield’: how immigration changes threaten school jobs and trips

Some migrant pupils risk exclusion from school trips and European staff risk losing jobs under post-Brexit immigration reforms. As the EU settlement scheme deadline expires this week, Schools Week investigates wider Brexit disruption to schools, from rising building costs to recruitment and travel woes. Julie McCulloch, the policy director at ASCL, the school leaders’ union, […]

Attainment gaps begin to widen and 6 other key findings from the EPI annual report

The Education Policy Institute has published its annual report, which has found that the attainment gap between poorer pupils and their better-off peers has stopped closing for the first time in a decade. The report is based on government data for 2019, with warnings that gaps may be much wider still this year due to […]

Coronavirus: £500m for ‘civic army’ of school leavers would reduce mass redundancy risk

The government should spend £500 million paying a “civic army” of school leavers for six months to stave off mass redundancy risks for youngsters, a group including academy trusts has said. The “Community Leadership Academy” would involve 75,000 disadvantaged young people under the age of 25 being given the opportunity to work for six months […]

Poorer pupils ‘catch up’ by end of primary, but fall behind again at GCSE

The attainment gap between the wealthiest and most disadvantaged pupils almost disappears by the end of primary school before reappearing at age 16, new data suggests. Analysis by data site SchoolDash shows that pupils from poorer areas draw level with their more socially advantaged peers by the end of key stage 2, but that the […]