A report by The Education Policy Institute has found that disadvantaged children on the Isle of Wight are almost 2-and-a-half years behind their peers by the end of secondary school – the largest attainment gap in the country.
The Education Policy Institute is an independent, impartial and evidence-based research institute that aims to promote high quality education outcomes, regardless of social background.
They have carried out a report entitled ‘Closing the Gap? Trends in Educational Attainment and Disadvantage’ which looks at how well disadvantaged children are doing in schools, based on 2016 data.
Nationally the attainment gap is closing, but at a very slow rate. On the Isle of Wight the gap between disadvantaged pupils – those who receive free school meals – and all other pupils on the Island is said to be nearly 6 months in early years (an increase of 1 months since 2012); almost 9 months in primary school (a reduction of over 1 month since 2012) and 29 months in secondary school (an increase of over 3 months).
When comparing against other local authorities in the country the Isle of Wight ranks in the top 25% for attainment for disadvantaged children in early years, but by the end of secondary school the Isle of Wight is ranked in the bottom 25%.
Overall attainment figures show that 71.8% of pupils in early years on the Island are achieving a good level of development, whilst just 49.1% are attaining the new expected level in Key Stage 2 for reading, writing and mathematics. By Key Stage 4 pupils attaining 50+ points on the 2017 scale is said to be just 25.4%.
Councillor Dave Stewart, Leader of the Isle of Wight Council, has today (Thursday) said:
“As the new Conservative administration of the Isle of Wight Council, elected in May, we have acknowledged that in the past our children have been badly let down. We have set out in detail our school improvement plans in our recent publication Delivering Educational Excellence and are determined that over the next four years all our schools will be good or outstanding. This is an ambitious target, but we are determined to deliver for all our children, including those who are disadvantaged.
Article continues below this advertisement “We will achieve this objective by being relentless in getting right the fundamentals, driving up the quality of teaching, curriculum and leadership. We are confident that we now have the necessary expertise and capacity through our officer colleagues from Hampshire who oversee our schools. Indeed, our Hampshire officers recently worked with Ofsted to feed in their experience to a new toolkit on working with disadvantaged children, which has been sent to every school in Southern England. They will also shortly be launching with us an intense project, focusing on disadvantage, that has been developed using national research.
“We are not complacent by any means, quite the opposite. We have inherited a grim situation and we are as impatient as we are determined to deliver the overdue and necessary improvements.”
The Education Policy Institute’s report, which has been put together by Jon Andrews, David Robinson and Jo Hutchinson, is the first stage of a longer-term programme of work examining the experiences of ‘vulnerable learners’. As well as pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds it considers how outcomes vary by ethnic group, having English as an additional language, and special educational needs and disabilities.
The full report can be found at https://www.epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/closing-the-gap-web.pdf.
