While the education gap between poorer and better off pupils in primary schools in Salford is around the national average, when it comes to secondary school Key Stage 4, or pupils aged between 14 and 16, the gap is huge.
The Education Policy Institute Annual Report shows that pupils who are on free school dinners – the 'Pupil Premium' indicator of 'disadvantage' – are 24.7 months behind better off pupils at Key Stage 4, the sixth biggest gap in England.
The Institute used average GCSE grade per all subjects but also analysed the gap in English and Maths nationally, where it was 18 months in 2017, compared to 18.1 months in 2016. Based on the most recent five years of data, the Institute concluded that "Based on current trends, it would take well over 100 years for the disadvantage gap in English and maths to close...".
It's a shocking indictment of current Government policies, its academisation programme, its cuts and everything else that teaching unions have been highlighting recently.
"A concern from this year's report is the apparent significant slowdown in the rate of gap closure, against a background of rising child poverty and financial pressures on many of the services which vulnerable children access" writes the Institute's Executive Chairman David Laws in the intro to the report.
"It is important that policymakers continue to prioritise measures to close gaps" he adds "without this, we may see a return to an era of stagnating or even worsening social mobility."
Judith Elderkin, of Salford National Education Union, tells the Salford Star: "At secondary level some of the more able pupils go to adjacent local authorities such as Prestwich in Bury, Wigan, Bolton, Trafford and Manchester, and some even pass Trafford's 11+ or go into independent education. However there is a big gap at secondary level in Salford.
"It is interesting that the London boroughs feature well; the per pupil spend is much higher there than in many other disadvantaged areas" she adds "The current cuts to school budgets will make matters worse as schools will all have to face increased costs of energy and incremental pay drift. This week's pay announcement is also not fully funded.
"The 3.5% for younger teachers is just above inflation but the last eight years of 1% public pay cap means that teachers have lost £15,000 since 2011" she explains "The majority of teachers (60%) will get 1.5-2.5% which represents another pay cut.
"However inadequate this pay announcement is, school budgets will be stretched too far and we will see staff reductions for teachers and support staff through non replacement, restructuring or redundancy" she concludes.
To read the Executive Summary of the Education Policy Institute's Report – click here
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