Educational qualifications are vital to ensuring a young person has access to the life choices they need to succeed later in life. Impetus’ Youth Jobs Gap research shows that young people without key GCSEs at 18 are twice as likely to be not in education, employment, or training (NEET) than those who attain GCSE qualifications. Given that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are also 40% less likely to get good GCSEs – despite being no less capable and intelligent – interventions to close the attainment gap are key to ensuring that every young person has the chance to succeed, regardless of their background.
There is no silver bullet for closing the attainment gap – we know many factors affect young people’s attainment. That’s why we’re using our research and partnerships to back a variety of organisations that have the potential to improve attainment for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Spoken language skills are associated with higher attainment, better employment prospects, and even improved mental health – but young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are significantly more likely to suffer from poor oracy skills from an early age compared to their peers. That’s why we’re investing in organisations that deliver oracy interventions, which have been found to lead to up to 6 months additional progress, driving attainment outcomes.
Alongside our portfolio partner, the national oracy charity Voice 21, we’ve supported the work of the Oracy Education Commission to develop policy recommendations for how oracy interventions can be successfully delivered. The forthcoming Curriculum and Assessment Review is expected to set out a path to embed oracy in the curriculum as part of the Government’s opportunity mission. We’re working to ensure that their approach to oracy is evidence-based and incorporates recommendations from the commission.
Strong evidence also suggests that social and emotional learning (SEL) skills more generally – essential life skills like speaking and listening, teamwork, and problem solving – are correlated with higher academic attainment. That’s why we support the Jon Egging Trust, Khulisa, and Kids Inspire, who work with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to develop SEL skills.
But to facilitate systemic change, we need to be able to explain why SEL skills contribute to higher attainment and how government can best ensure all pupils get the SEL skills they need. Our forthcoming analysis of ImpactEd data starts to answer these questions, exploring the relationship between SEL, attendance, and attainment.
As promising as these curriculum-wide interventions may be, schools must also be prepared to offer additional support to the young people who need it most. Extensive evidence shows the impact of tutoring to support pupils who have fallen behind, not least from our portfolio partners the Tutor Trust and Action Tutoring. That’s why we supported our sister charity the Education Endowment Foundation during the pandemic to set up the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), which ran from October 2020 to August 2024. While we were thrilled to see tutoring on the national agenda, we believe that the emphasis on reach over impact limited the programme’s potential, explored in detail in policy briefings we published in July and September of 2022. We continue to advocate for tutoring to be accessible, particularly to disadvantaged groups, and support using impact data to evaluate and adapt any large-scale tutoring scheme.
And, of course, no child should go to school hungry. We support the Government’s plans for a breakfast club in every primary school, and we urge them to model their rollout on proven interventions like Magic Breakfast, one of our previous portfolio partners. The Education Endowment Foundation found that their approach led to two months additional progress for pupils.
Our Life After School: Confronting the crisis research revealed that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who failed their English and maths GCSEs the first time round were unlikely to achieve these grades by age 19. Our education system runs until the age of 18, and yet funding drops at age 16, including the necessary Pupil Premium funding that supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed. We support a single, consistent funding system, and the extension of Pupil Premium funding to the age of 18, so young people get the support they need to succeed in their education, for all of their education.
The Oracy Commission's report on the Future of Oracy Education in England.
October 2024
26/07/2022
This report reveals the failure to give young people who fail their English and maths GCSEs the first time around with a second chance to succeed – irrespective of their background or their provider. Part of our Life After School campaign.
March 2017
