Education
Attainment at London's state funded schools
Key findings
Pupils
in London outperform pupils in the rest of England across ethnic groups, as do pupils who do not speak English as their first language and pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN).
Overview
Educational attainment is a key determinant of lifetime earnings, poverty risk and social mobility. Other indicators on this site note how low pay and employment status are associated with lower levels of educational qualification. The large improvements in education in London over the past decade are rightly celebrated in improving the life chances of its young people, especially as increasing attainment by disadvantaged pupils has been a key driver.
However, the gap in educational achievement between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils is present from the beginning of schools and widens as pupils get older. These indicators therefore focus on attainment at age 16 and older.
The GCSE attainment gap is significantly smaller in London than the rest of England (28% in the rest of England, 15% in London). The boroughs with the seven largest gaps are all in Outer London.
Progress on GCSE attainment has stalled since 2010/2011. 40% of students in Inner London and 39% in Outer London do not have 5 or more A*-C grades, including English and Maths, when they finish their GCSEs – a similar figure to five years ago. The proportion of 19 year olds without level 3 qualifications has continued to fall in London though, unlike in the rest of England where progress has stalled.
The percentage of disadvantaged pupils in Inner London who go onto Higher Education is actually higher than for non-disadvantaged pupils (59% vs 55%). The trend is reversed in Outer London, where non-disadvantaged pupils are narrowly more likely to pursue higher education (58% vs 56%). These figures will be important to monitor to assess whether they are affected by the abolition of maintenance grants in 2016.
From our Twitter
@povertylondon
Child Obesity is a problem across London, with 23% of year 6 children obese. In Newham the rate is even higher, at 28%.
12 Aug 2018The gap in GCSE attainment between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils in Newham is 13 percentage points. This is the 4th smallest gap in London (joint with Hounslow).
11 Aug 201836% of working Newham residents are low paid. This is the highest rate in London. However, while rates of low-pay across London have risen, in Newham they have stayed roughly the same.
10 Aug 20181 in 5 of London's pensioners live in poverty. This is higher than the rate of pensioner poverty in the rest of England. https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/data/populations/pensioners/ …
10 Aug 2018Newham has the highest rate of homelessness acceptances in London, at 10 per 1,000 households. pic.twitter.com/3gLVMsE707
9 Aug 2018