Disadvantaged white pupils have 'particularly poor' education

New analysis suggests educational inequalities have grown wider and more pronounced since Covid-19, reports Eleanor Busby

- Eleanor Busby

AREAS of the country where disadvantaged pupils perform worse are more likely to have large populations of poor white children, a report has suggested.

The Institute for Government (IfG) think tank has said disadvantaged white pupils in England have “particularly poor educational outcomes”.

An analysis by the IfG looks at the “high-impact” group of pupils - those for whom disadvantage disproportionately affects their performance - which it said is made up mostly of white British pupils.

Local authority areas in the bottom fifth for the performance of disadvantaged pupils were “disproportionately likely” to have “above-average” shares of disadvantaged pupils from the high-impact group (or from white backgrounds), it found.

It comes after the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said it was a “national disgrace” that so many white working-class children are being “written off” in the education system.

Tens of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to receive their GCSE results today.

Many of the pupils who are waiting for their exam results were in Year 6 when schools closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.