London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Poorer pupils in England and Wales lag ‘significantly’ behind, report finds

Poorer pupils in England and Wales lag ‘significantly’ behind, report finds

Gap in education outcomes between poor children and others is far too wide, says policy thinktank
Poorer pupils in England and Wales are “significantly” behind their peers, according to a report.

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) study found that in 2019, prior to the pandemic, the gap between poorer pupils and their peers was 22-23 months in Wales and about 18 months in England.

The gap has narrowed slightly in both countries since 2011, but the EPI said progress seems to have “stalled of late”.

In Wales, the largest disadvantage gaps by area were as big as 25-28 months, the EPI found. In England, the largest attainment gap, of about 25 months, was found in Blackpool.

Pupils living with long-term and persistent poverty are even further behind their peers in both countries. In England, the persistent disadvantage gap was equal to about 23 months of learning, while in Wales it was 29 months.

There has been almost no improvement in this measure over the last decade. The EPI said policymakers needed to do more to reduce the gaps, especially in Wales, where it was “notably worse”.

The researchers said comparisons between England and Wales could be “challenging” because English qualifications were reformed in 2015, while performance measures across the two nations have changed over time.

But the EPI said while Wales had a larger attainment gap at GCSE level than England, progress in narrowing the gap in either nation has been “modest” over the past 10 years. It has called for a renewed focus on narrowing disadvantage gaps in schools.

Pupils from poorer backgrounds were much less likely to reach the top quintile of GCSE scores and more likely to be in the bottom quintile across both nations, with “less mobility in Wales than in England”, the study found.

The EPI said local authorities in Wales needed to adopt measures from poorer areas in England that have managed to keep their disadvantage gaps smaller over time. It said targeting extra funding at poorer schools had proven effective in narrowing the disadvantage gap, and that more funding should be specifically targeted at pupils experiencing persistent poverty in both nations.

The EPI said measures such as attracting high-quality teachers to poorer areas through salary supplements, and one-to-one and small group tutoring had also been shown to reduce attainment gaps.

The government’s flagship national tutoring programme aims to help pupils catch up on learning missed during the pandemic, but the decision to scrap a focus on the poorest pupils has been criticised by social mobility experts.
The government has

also announced a levelling-up premium for teachers, where eligible maths, physics, chemistry and computing teachers can receive a premium of £3,000 for teaching in poorer areas from 2022 to 2025.

Luke Sibieta, an EPI research fellow, said: “The gap in education outcomes between poor children and the rest is far too wide in both England and Wales.

“But the results for Wales are particularly concerning – with poor children almost two years behind on average by the time they take their GCSEs, compared with 18 months in England. And children who are long-term poor in Wales are almost two and a half years behind, compared with just under two years in England.

“Policymakers in both countries need to redouble their attempts to give poorer children a better chance in life, and Welsh policymakers need to consider if there are lessons they can learn from the best performing areas of England, where gaps are far lower.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×