Regional gaps
Early years foundation stage
Nationally the disadvantage gap by the end of reception year was 4.8 months in 2022. London outperformed the rest of the country, with disadvantaged pupils aged five only 3.4 months behind their peers. The next smallest gap was 4.7 months in the West Midlands, whilst the North West had the largest gap, at 5.6 months. This is despite London having seen one of the highest increases in the gap among the nine English regions since 2019 (with an increase of 0.8 months), second only to the North East (+0.9 months). No region saw a reduction in the disadvantage gap between 2019 and 2022. The region with the smallest increase in the gap over this period was Yorkshire and The Humber (+0.2 months).
Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2023
Primary School
Nationally the disadvantage gap widens from 4.8 months at the end of reception year to 10.3 months by the end of primary school. London also pulls further ahead of other regions by the end of primary school. Disadvantaged pupils aged 11 in London were on average 6.3 months behind in 2022, while the gap was 9.9 months in the two next best-performing regions of the North East and West Midlands. The region with the largest gap of 12.2 months was the South West, followed by the South East (with a gap of 12.0 months). It is notable that the North West moves from being the region with the largest gap at age 5 to having a gap at age 11 that virtually matches the national average. As for pupils aged 5, the disadvantage gap for pupils aged 11 increased in all regions compared with 2019, with the smallest increase in the West Midlands (+0.4 months) and the largest increase in the South East (+1.3 months).
Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2023
Secondary School
Nationally, the disadvantage gap widens further as pupils progress through secondary school to 18.8 months by the time pupils take their GCSEs. Once again, the gap between London and other English regions grows across phases. At the end of secondary school, the disadvantage gap in London in 2022 was 10.0 months. This compares with a gap of 18.4 months in the West Midlands and 20.8 months in the East of England, the regions with the next smallest gaps. Looking across phases, the West Midlands consistently has the smallest regional disadvantage gap outside of London. Meanwhile the South East had the largest key stage 4 gap at 21.8 months in 2022, closely followed by the North East (21.6 months). Consequently the South East is a region that goes from having a gap that is similar to the national average at the end of reception, to having the second widest gap by the end of primary school and the widest gap by the end of secondary school. The North East also stands out as a region whose relative ranking deteriorates by the time pupils sit their GCSEs.
In contrast to the previous two key stages, the key stage 4 gap did not widen in every region between 2019-2022. London, the West Midlands, and the South West saw their disadvantage gaps narrow over this period (by 0.5 months in London and 0.2 months in the West Midlands and South West), at a time when the national disadvantage gap widened by 0.7 months. Though not directly comparable, this is consistent with EPI research showing that the smallest learning losses for secondary-aged pupils (in reading) were in London by the autumn term of 2021/22. The three regions with the largest increases in their gap between 2019 and 2022 were the East Midlands (with an increase of 1.4 months), Yorkshire and The Humber (+1.3 months) and the South East (+1.1 months).
Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2023