The Reading Gap: The socio-economic gap in children’s reading skills

Ensuring that the brightest pupils fulfil their potential goes straight to the heart of social mobility, of basic fairness and economic efficiency. Last year, the Sutton Trust published research into the performance of able students in mathematics in England, showing that our brightest students lag behind not only the powerhouses of Asia but also many European countries in performance at the highest levels.

This new report by Dr John Jerrim highlights an even more worrying issue: the gap in achievement between high achieving boys from disadvantaged backgrounds and their better off peers. Not only are the brightest boys from poor families thirty months behind high achievers from the most advantaged backgrounds, this gap places England near the bottom of the OECD league tables.

This matters for two important reasons. First, it is clearly economically inefficient not to tap into talent wherever it exists. By not stretching our most able students from all backgrounds, we are not only failing them, we are reducing our ability to compete globally. Second, such under-achievement perpetuates those inequalities which make it so hard for bright children to move up in society.

The Sutton Trust supports many programmes that help able young people from low and middle income homes to achieve their potential. But if the high achieving young people who underperform in tests such as this are to succeed, proper provision for the most able across the whole education system is critical.

Part of the solution lies in the Sutton Trust’s 'Open Access' scheme which would democratise entry to the country’s leading independent day schools – opening them up to bright pupils from all backgrounds, not just those able to afford fees.

But we also need to improve the support for the broader group of highly able children in comprehensive schools and academies. That is why it is so important that there is a targeted scheme that ensures that those with high potential from low and middle income backgrounds are identified and helped to thrive.
Although some schools have kept a gifted and talented strand, following the initiatives introduced by the previous Government, such provision is patchy. Parents and students need to know that highly able young people will be given the backing they need to succeed regardless of which school they attend. That’s why the chief inspector of schools was right recently to urge such provision and it is why Government should give it their backing too.

This report recommends that there should be a targeted scheme for highly able pupils from low and middle income homes, and that there should be clearer recognition of their attainment in the revised school league tables.