Disadvantaged Student Statistics

The story behind the numbers

Disadvantaged students and the attainment gap- What does it all mean?

The UK government’s Department for Education defines disadvantaged students as those who receive Free School Meals or who are Looked After Children. It is worth noting that some young people will have multiple disadvantages beyond the UK government’s definition.

The gap in attainment is stark. According to Government figures, published on 11 September 2024, the ‘disadvantage gap index’ was at its widest since the 2010 to 2011 school year. This index measures the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and all other pupils. It showed that 25.2% of disadvantaged pupils and 52.4% of all other pupils got a grade 5 or above in their GCSE’s.

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Disadvantage adversely affects life chances

Where we start in life shouldn’t affect where we finish, unfortunately for disadvantaged students it does. Disadvantaged students academically underperform when compared to a non-disadvantaged student of the same or lower intelligence. The ‘disadvantage gap’ is wider now than before the COVID-19 pandemic. It went down in the 9 school years to July 2019. It then went up in the 2021 to 2022 school year to the highest level since 2012, and has stayed about the same ever since.

Here are some facts about the adverse impact being disadvantaged can have on a child’s academic outcomes and their earning potential.

By the age of 5, 20% of disadvantaged students are already behind their peers.

52% of pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) and 72% of non-eligible pupils achieved a good level of development.

At age 5 the gap is widening for disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND (Special educational needs and disabilities)

Disadvantaged children are less likely to reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by the end of key stage 2 (primary school)

44% of disadvantaged pupils and 66% of non-disadvantaged pupils met the expected standard.

By Year 6, the disadvantage gap grows to 10.3 months in 2023 – one month wider than pre-pandemic levels in 2019

The ‘disadvantage gap index’ was at its widest since the 2010 to 2011 school year.

Research by the Education Policy Institute has shown that Disadvantaged students are 19.2 months behind their peers by the end of secondary school.

This gap has widened by 1.1 months since 2019 and has reached its highest level since 2012

Disadvantaged students earn less than their peers.

Part of this overall gap in lower earnings is because of people from disadvantaged backgrounds being much less likely to go on to higher education.

48% of disadvantaged students go on to complete a qualification above GCSE level compared to 71% of their peers.

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The earnings gap for disadvantaged students widens with age

The size of that overall earnings gap widens between the ages of 18 and 30 years, particularly around university graduation age

Higher education is a key driver of social mobility. Income gaps are lower between graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers compared
to non-graduates.

Half of disadvantaged students earned £17,000 or less aged 30 years

The top 1% of disadvantaged students earned around £63,000. By contrast, 50% of people who were on free school meals earned £17,000 or less aged 30 years.

By the age of 40, the average UK employee with a degree earns twice as much as someone qualified to GCSE level or below.

Tuition works

Tutoring is recognised as a high-impact intervention by the Education Endowment Foundation. Our tuition partners research has found that pupils who access one-to-one tuition can make 5.2 times the progress of their peers.

Our tuition partner has the experience to make a real positive impact on the academic outcomes of disadvantaged students. They have delivered over 4 million lessons and are recognised as one of the top 10 online tuition providers in the UK. They create tailor made one-to-one lessons for pupils in an interactive lesson space. Tutors bring tricky concepts to life with interactive exercises, drawing diagrams as they go. It can even make tricky subjects fun.

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Attitudes Towards Education

According to analysis of data gathered from the Covid Social Mobility and Opportunities (COSMO) study young people from disadvantaged backgrounds feel less in control of their futures than their peers.

Most young people (98.3%) agreed that their future careers are important, and this was broadly the same across different types of households.

“I want the best for me, and I want to do the best that I know I can do rather than knowing that I could have done better if I’d done more.”

COSMO study participant, Opportunity Cohort

Young people from lower-income households were more likely to feel they don’t have much of a chance in life

Young people in households where the adults had never worked or were long-term unemployed were more likely to say that people like them didn’t have much of a chance in life than those whose parents were in managerial, administrative and professional occupations (29.3% versus 10.9%).

23.3% of young people living in the most deprived areas said that people like them didn’t have much of a chance in life. This compared with only 10.0 % of those who lived in the least deprived areas.

I just think that I’m quite apathetic … you can work really hard and I think you probably can do well in life … I feel like you can also work really, really hard and still be unsuccessful.

Responses to the statement “people like me don’t have much of a chance in life”, young people aged 16 to 17 years, by parent’s occupation group, England, October 2021 to March 2022

Source: COVID Social Mobility and Opportunities (COSMO) study: Wave 1 from the University College London, Sutton Trust and Kantar Public

Young people from lower-income households were less likely to plan to still be studying in two years’ time