17th June 2015 6:00
By Blue Tutors
The education charity the Sutton Trust has raised new concerns that bright boys from poorer backgrounds are falling behind in secondary school. New research from the group shows that boys from disadvantaged background who show considerable academic potential in primary school and falling far behind by the time they reach GCSEs. The trust compared the performance of poorer boys between primary school and GCSEs, and found that a third of the boys studied under-performed in their GCSEs. Report authors warned that many schools lack the resources necessary to support bright children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Sutton Trust examined the results of 7,000 students who performed very well in their sats tests in year 6, but did not go on to achieve GCSE results within the top 25% of students. Their report refers to ‘missing talent’, in cases in which high-achieving students do not reach their potential in secondary school. Whilst acknowledging that there are a number of factors which affect performance, the report demonstrates a clear trend regarding the under-performance of bright students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The charity highlighted that boys are almost twice as likely to fall behind as girls, a risk which is dramatically increased where the boys are from a poorer background.
Overall, the research shows that 36% of “highly able” boys who are eligible for the pupil premium fail to achieve a “good set of GCSEs”. Apart from results, another principal issue highlighted by the charity is that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to select GCSE subjects which will lead to places at good universities. A quarter of students from poorer backgrounds will not study a language at GCSE, and they are less likely to take subjects such as history and geography. Noting that many schools do not have the capacity to offer a range of subjects to students, or the support that is necessary for disadvantaged students, the report called for more to be done to ensure that students from disadvantaged backgrounds do not fall behind.