HC 142 - Underachievement in Education by White Owrking Class Children

Book excerpt: This report finds that poor white British boys and girls are educationally underperforming - but great schools have a transformative effect. The problem of poor, white British under attainment is real and the gap between those children and their better off class mates starts in their earliest school years and then widens as they get older. Just 32% of poor white British children achieve five good GCSEs including English and mathematics, compared with 42% of black Caribbean children eligible for free school meals and 61% of disadvantaged Indian children. Poor white children also do less homework and have a higher rate of absence from school. But good schools and teachers can make a huge difference to the academic achievement of children eligible for free school meals. Twice the proportion of poor children attending an 'outstanding' school will achieve five good GCSEs when compared with what the same group will achieve in 'inadequate' schools. Guidance for schools is needed on how an extended school day could be used to provide space and time for children to complete homework. And more work is needed to understand what interventions can be most effective in improving parental engagement, early language stimulus and other home based conditions which can set children up to succeed. The Government should also publish an analysis of the incentives that influence where teachers choose to work, and use this to design a system that ensures that the most challenging schools can attract the best teachers and leaders.