Pupils experiencing persistent disadvantage consistently demonstrate some of the lowest educational outcomes in the system – falling, on average, nearly two years of learning behind their peers by the time they sit their GCSEs. Yet identifying and targeting this group at school level remains a practical challenge, compounded by Universal Credit protections that make disadvantage harder to measure directly.
Produced by the Education Policy Institute for Teach First, Persistent disadvantage: Further analysis for Teach First draws on publicly available data to provide a detailed portrait of this pupil group, including breakdowns by geography, ethnicity, and special educational needs status, as well as school-level measures of the persistent disadvantage gap.
Download tables providing full breakdowns of:
- Key stage 4 attainment of pupils in state-funded schools in the 2023/24 academic year.
- Post-16 participation at the start of year 12 of pupils who completed key stage 4 in state-funded schools in the 2021/22 academic year
