School attainment plays a key role in social mobility, with gaps in attainment between socio-economically disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers notably accelerating at secondary school. Over the years, numerous pieces of Sutton Trust research have shown that those from disadvantaged backgrounds fall behind their peers during these years. But what barriers are high attaining disadvantaged students facing in comparison with pupils with the same grades from better-off homes and why is their potential not always fulfilled?
To help answer this, we have launched a new research series, Social Mobility: the next generation. Lost Potential at Age 16 reveals the extent to which the talent of high-potential disadvantaged young people identified at primary-school age is not carried through to age 16 and beyond. We found between 2017 and 2021, over 28,000 young people from less well-off families who demonstrated the potential at primary school to achieve top grades at GCSE did not do so.
Our new report is the first research piece to look at the Opportunity Cohort, part of the COVID Social Mobility and Opportunities (COSMO) study, made up of students who were awarded Teacher Assessed Grades (TAGs) for their GCSEs in Summer 2021.
Looking at the Attainment 8 measure, which takes grades from a student’s best 8 subjects (with English and Maths double weighted) into account, the average score for disadvantaged high attainers was 64.1. While this is higher than the average score for all students of 53.1, it is notably lower than their more affluent counterparts: other high attainers had a score around 8 grades higher at 72.3 and the most affluent high attainers scored 74.5.
