Grammar schools and an increased focus on northern communities is needed to break the ‘cycle of failure’ white working class children are stuck in, says think tank.
ResPublica has published a new report arguing white working class children, who currently have the lowest level of educational attainment of any group, are being pushed into further disadvantage by a flawed education system.
In 2014, the house of commons education committee reported that: ‘White children who are eligible for free school meals are consistently the lowest performing group in the country, and the difference between their educational performance and that of their less deprived white peers is larger than for any other ethnic group.’
The report, entitled Achieving Educational Excellence in Knowsley: A Review of Attainment, argued limited sixth form provision and a lack of diversity were holding back these children in areas such as the Liverpool borough of Knowsley.
Researchers also identified a ‘start-stop’ approach to new initiatives and poor use of resources to help struggling pupils as barriers to educational attainment.
ResPublica outlined plans for a ‘Northern Teaching Premium’ to attract teachers to white working class areas in the north. This would include incentives, such as paying off student debts and offering higher wages.
The think tank’s report also backed Government proposals to found more grammar schools, arguing they are more likely to enable children receiving free school meals to achieve as much as those from middle class backgrounds.
‘Re-introducing grammar schools is potentially a transformative idea for working class areas where there are little or no middle classes to game the admission system,’ said ResPublica’s director Phillip Blond.
‘We know that selection improves the performance of those white working class children selected - the trouble is too few of them are. We recommend that new grammars in the first instance are exclusively focused on the needs of white working class children.’
