While this is promising, and certainly better news than an increased gap, changes in how free school meal eligibility is calculated may mean that this year’s cohort of disadvantaged pupils is not really comparable with earlier cohorts. Whereas in the past disadvantaged pupils were those eligible for free school meals in the past 6 years, this year it is those eligible in the last 7 years. This makes it difficult to be sure how the disadvantage gap has really changed over time.
Pupils for whom English is not their first austria rcs data language tend to have slightly higher attainment than their peers, on average. Differences in the proportion of EAL pupils, as well as disadvantaged pupils, in different areas are behind quite a lot of the infamous regional differences in attainment (of which more in a moment).
But results from our sample suggest that the difference in attainment between EAL pupils and their peers may be slightly lower this year than last.
Last year, the difference in Attainment 8 scores for EAL and other pupils was 2.9, compared to 2.2 this year.
Regional differences are going nowhere… but aren’t the whole story
National figures have included data on attainment by region. And these show some large, and consistent, differences.
This year, 28.5% of GCSE entries in London were graded 9-7, compared to 17.8% in the North East.