26 June 2026
How the ‘disadvantage gap’ is evolving in England
The ‘Growing Apart: The evolution of the disadvantage gap’ report from Education Endowment Fund and Education Policy Institute, examines socio-economic disadvantage and the gaps in attainment in England for 2023-24.
It identifies how and why educational inequalities are formed and how they increase through different phases of learning. Through analysis of key datasets, the report provides new insights into the drives of educational inequality, from early years through to post-16 education.
Socio-economically disadvantaged pupils start 4.6 months behind their peers in early years, increasing to 10.1 months behind in primary and 17.9 months behind in secondary, finally achieving 3.5 grades lower than peers across their best three qualifications.
Prior attainment was identified as the biggest cross-phase contributor to disadvantage gap, with maths and English performance being strongly associated with disadvantage. SEND was the biggest observable contributor to this attainment and school absence played an increasingly large part of the gap as pupils progress from KS2 to KS4.
Read more in the ‘Growing Apart: The evolution of the disadvantage gap’ report.
It identifies how and why educational inequalities are formed and how they increase through different phases of learning. Through analysis of key datasets, the report provides new insights into the drives of educational inequality, from early years through to post-16 education.
Socio-economically disadvantaged pupils start 4.6 months behind their peers in early years, increasing to 10.1 months behind in primary and 17.9 months behind in secondary, finally achieving 3.5 grades lower than peers across their best three qualifications.
Prior attainment was identified as the biggest cross-phase contributor to disadvantage gap, with maths and English performance being strongly associated with disadvantage. SEND was the biggest observable contributor to this attainment and school absence played an increasingly large part of the gap as pupils progress from KS2 to KS4.
Read more in the ‘Growing Apart: The evolution of the disadvantage gap’ report.
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