The disadvantage gap is now widening even at the very start of school, the latest early years foundation stage results for reception pupils show.
The gap between the proportion of pupils eligible for means-tested free school meals achieving a “good level of development” and their better-off peers grew from 19.9 percentage points in 2022-23 to 20.5 last year.
This reversed the progress logged last year, when the gap narrowed slightly from 20.4 percentage points, the Department for Education data published today shows. Current data only goes back to 2021-22, after changes were made to the EYFS.
The persistence of disadvantage gaps later on in schools and their widening both before and after the pandemic has become a source of deep concern in the education sector.
Last year, the GCSE disadvantage gap widened again, while the gap at the end of primary school narrowed slightly.
Today’s data shows the gap is opening up even among the youngest school pupils.
A growing gap
Last year, 72 per cent of pupils not eligible for free school meals had a “good level of development”, up from 71.5 per cent the year before.
But the proportion of free school meals eligible pupils meeting the benchmark fell slightly from 51.6 to 51.5 per cent.
Overall, results from the early years foundation stage profile show 67.7 per cent of children had a good level of development last year.
That’s up slightly from 67.2 per cent 2022-2023 and 65.2 per cent the year before.
The proportion of children at the “expected level” across all early learning goals was 66.2 per cent, up from 65.6 per cent in 2022-2023 and 63.4 per cent the year before.
These proportions are down on pre-pandemic 2019 results, but the assessment framework changed substantially in 2021, so cannot be directly compared.
The DfE said the slight year-on-year overall increases might be attributable to “gradual recovery from disruption” caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It could also be down to schools having greater familiarisation with the new assessment framework rolled out in September 2021, the department noted.
Gap between girls and boys widens again
Girls continue to outperform boys, and the gap has widened for the second year running.
The gulf widened from 13.6 percentage points to 14.3 year-on-year.
The difference between autumn and summer-born children narrowed for the second consecutive year, however.
Just 3.8 per cent of children with an education, health and care plan were deemed to have a good level of development in 2023-2024, the same as the year before.
But the proportion with a good level of development improved slightly for those receiving SEN support, from 24.3 per cent to 24.9 per cent.
The proportion of children with any SEN receiving a good level of development dropped from 19.8 percentage points to 19.7.
But the DfE said “this is due to a larger proportion of children with SEN having an EHC plan compared to a year earlier”.
The difference between the 10 per cent of most deprived areas and the 10 per cent of least deprived areas in 2023-2024 was 18.6pp.
That’s up from 18.5 percentage points the year before, but down from 20 percentage points in 2021-22.
A-level attainment gap persists
A stubborn disadvantage gap also persists at the end of school, data published today shows.
The average A-level points score for disadvantaged pupils was 4.9 points below that of their better off peers, the same as in 2022-23.
But the DfE said to get a “fuller picture on the impact of disadvantaged status, this data should be looked at in conjunction with data on retention rates”.
This is because students are only included in the average points score measure if they enter exams.
In 2022-23, 93.7 per cent of non-disadvantaged A-level students were retained and assessed, compared to 86.8 per cent of disadvantaged students.
However, retention data for last year won’t be published until the spring.
