Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to tackle educational disadvantage amongst white working class boys in (a) St Helens, (b) Merseyside and (c) England.

Educational achievement is at the heart of our commitment to ensure no young person is left behind because of the place or circumstances of their birth. Most pupils now attend Good or Outstanding schools. As of March 2020, 86% of schools are Good or Outstanding compared to just 68% in 2010.

We are aware that pupils of all backgrounds have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and we are providing schools with the resources and tools to address lost education so that all pupils can catch up. Our £1 billion COVID-19 catch-up package is providing additional funding so that schools can support pupils who have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. As part of this, the £650 million universal Catch-Up Premium is enabling all schools to identify and prioritise support for pupils to address their needs. This complements the National Tutoring Programme which is targeting £350 million to accelerate the academic progress of disadvantaged pupils by making high quality tutors available to schools in all regions at a greatly reduced rate.

Recognising that disadvantaged children may not have access to the resources they need to learn remotely, we have invested more than £195 million to support access to remote education and online social care. As part of this, we are making more than 340,000 laptops and tablets available this term to support disadvantaged children in Years 3 to 11 whose face-to-face education may be disrupted. This supplements more than 220,000 laptops and tablets and 50,000 4G wireless routers which were delivered during the summer term.

English schools continue to receive the pupil premium, worth £2.4 billion again this financial year, to enable them to arrange extra personalised support for disadvantaged pupils of all abilities. This year, schools in St Helens are sharing £9.7 million provided through this grant, with schools in the five local authorities in Merseyside sharing £82.4 million.

We founded the Education Endowment Foundation in 2011 to research and disseminate the most effective ways to improve disadvantaged pupil progress. So far, it has conducted 190 trials in 13,000 English schools leading to the publication of a comprehensive range of internationally recognised effective practice. The research shows schools effectively implementing the best evidence-based approaches can make a difference to every pupil’s future.