Free school meal pupils falling further behind their peers, report warns
The gap between how students from better-off families perform better in school compared to their classmates from lower-income families has widened further, according to a new report.
The Education Policy Institute (EPI) said that despite some improvements in the years since Covid, the disadvantage gap in England has widened again and is still wider than before the pandemic at “every stage” of schooling.
The gap is “particularly stark” in early education, the report said.
The Ministry of National Education said: It sought to close the disadvantage gap by providing opportunities for every child, including expanding publicly funded child care and expanding eligibility for free school meals.
The government has previously set itself a target of halving the gap in disadvantage if the current generation of children completes secondary school.
To measure who is considered disadvantaged, the EPI examined the educational outcomes of children who have so far been eligible for free school meals compared to those who have not.
It also categorized its data by gender, ethnicity and whether children had special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The EPI said the academic achievement gap between low-income students and their wealthier peers is now 17% wider for early years children than before Covid.
Although gaps in some school stages began to close after the pandemic, the report said these gaps widened again in the early years and at Key Stage 4, when students sit GCSE exams.
Disadvantaged pupils are on average 19 months behind their better-off classmates by the time they reach Key Stage 4, the report said.
EPI found that achievement gaps for pupils with SEND narrowed for older age groups, but were at their highest levels on record for children with education, health and care plans (legal documents setting out what additional support some children with SEND are entitled to).
Disadvantaged students in London outperform students from similar backgrounds in every other region, while the gap between wealthy and less well-off students widens the most in the South East and South West of England, the report said.
