Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to help improve GCSE outcomes in (a) English and (b) maths for white working-class children.

All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed. However, the system is not working for all, including white working-class children, who are one of the biggest and lowest-performing groups.

This is unacceptable. The upcoming Schools White Paper will set out our vision for a school system that delivers educational excellence for all children, no matter their background.

The department is driving standards and outcomes through regional improvement for standards and excellence teams’ attainment conferences focused on disadvantage and the Maths Hubs programme, supported by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics. As part of a £2 million investment in reading and writing, secondary schools can access support to foster a strong whole-school reading culture, as well as the Unlocking Reading programme to boost the reading of pupils who need the most support, launching in January.

We will ensure future work to support white working-class children draws on evidence and expertise, including from the independent inquiry into white working-class educational outcomes.