PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Education: Boys (4 April 2019)

This government is committed to delivering a high-performing education system in which all pupils, regardless of their background, ethnicity or gender, have the opportunity to go as far as their hard work will take them.

We know that the proportion of children in good or outstanding schools rose from 66% in 2010 to 85% by the end of December 2018, in part due to our reforms – and that the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils, measured by the department’s attainment gap index, has narrowed by 13.2% at the end of key stage 2 and 9.5% at the end of key stage 4 since 2011. But we also know that the average attainment of white boys – and also girls – who are eligible for free school meals remains unacceptably low.

Addressing the educational effects of disadvantage is a priority for the department. We are continuing to provide pupil premium funding – worth more than £2.4 billion in 2018-19 – to help schools improve the progress, attainment and other outcomes of their disadvantaged pupils. White working class boys and girls form the largest group of eligible pupils and so benefit significantly from this extra support. Our recently introduced national funding formula for schools also takes account of socio-economic disadvantage – and low prior attainment – in allocating funding to schools. We have also invested over £137 million in the Education Endowment Foundation, to identify what works to improve disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes and to make this evidence readily available to schools, colleges and early years providers.

We are targeting extra support at some of the poorest areas of the country to raise standards in schools, through our £72 million Opportunity Areas and £24 million Opportunity North East programmes.

We are also working to make sure that more disadvantaged young people can benefit from higher education. In our latest guidance, published in February of this year, we have asked the Office for Students to continue in its efforts to secure greater and faster progress in ensuring that students from disadvantaged and under-represented groups – including students from white working class backgrounds – can not only access but also successfully participate in higher education.