The achievement gap in schools

Attainment

The Sutton Trust reports that the biggest factor determining the numbers of underprivileged pupils at university is the attainment of children during school.

Crucial early years

The gap between the most privileged and the least privileged students has been recorded as beginning as early as 24 months, but it becomes particularly pronounced immediately before students take their GCSEs, and widens significantly from then on.

 

Free School Meals

Fee-paying pupils are three times as likely as Free School Meals (FSM) pupils to achieve 5 A*-C GCSEs, 22 times more likely to enter a highly selective university, and 55 times more likely to win a place at Oxbridge.

 

 
 
What we do

To tackle this attainment gap we match students with a volunteer for a weekly one-to-one academic tutorial. This begins in year 9 and we only work in schools where at least 40% of students are eligible for FSM.

All the figures on this page come from The Sutton Trust, ‘Responding to the New Landscape for University Access,’ December 2010.