Disadvantaged pupils in Sheffield almost two years behind their peers

Author: Astrid Quinn

Disadvantaged pupils in Sheffield are almost two years behind their peers by the end of secondary school, according to a shocking new report by the Education Policy Institute.

The Education Policy Institute defines disadvantaged pupils as those who have been eligible for free school meals in any of the past six years. In Sheffield, 23.5% of children leaving Reception Year, 35.8% children leaving primary school, and 29.1% of children leaving secondary school fall into the disadvantaged category.

Nationally, disadvantaged pupils are now, on average, over 18 months behind non-disadvantaged pupils by the time they leave secondary school. This problem is getting worse with the ‘disadvantage gap’ having increased 0.2 months over the last year.

Pupils with special educational needs are the furthest behind and those with the greatest needs are, on average, 40 months behind their peers by the end of secondary school.

There are large geographical variations to these figures as disadvantage gaps are larger, and are growing, in the North.

The problem is particularly acute in Sheffield where disadvantaged children are, on average, already five months behind their peers at age five. By the end of primary school, disadvantaged pupils are almost eleven months behind and almost two years behind by the time they finish their GCSEs.

In comparison, Boris Johnson’s constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip in Greater London has a disadvantage gap of 12.4 months at GCSE level - around half around that of Sheffield.

Louise Haigh, MP for Sheffield Heeley, has said: “Education is what empowers us to realise our full potential and it’s a tragedy that so many children from poorer families are being left behind.

“Since 2015, the Government has cut school budgets by £1.7 billion, which goes to show how little the Tories care about our children’s education. In Sheffield alone, schools have lost out on over £46 million in the last four years.

“The next Labour Government will reverse the Conservatives’ cuts and fund schools properly. To give all children the best possible start to their education, we’ll reduce class sizes to less than 30 for all five-, six-, and seven- year-olds and introduce free school meals for all primary school children.