Children living in relative poverty in England have worse average educational outcomes, including lower grades in exams, than other pupils. This situation is often referred to as the poverty attainment gap.
Closing this gap, so that poorer students do as well at school as their peers, is a concern for countries around the world. The ways this can be done has been a focus of my research.
A key issue to address is the social divisions that mean that certain schools cater for richer or poorer pupils. Extra funding should also be focused on the children who need it most.
In official statistics, the attainment gap is measured as the difference between the attainment of the majority of pupils and those eligible for free school meals (a measure of poverty). This is problematic because the gap changes as the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals changes over time.
