Education plans for Oldham should focus on disadvantage, not Eton

Education plans for Oldham must address new figures showing that Oldham has one of the highest rates of children suffering from “persistent disadvantage” – 30% higher than the national average, and well above the average for the region, say Oldham Liberal Democrats. 

With persistently disadvantaged children (those who have been on free school meals for 80% of their school life) averaging just 3.3 in their grades for English and Maths, compared to a national average of 4.6, the Liberal Democrats are calling for serious investment to support improvements in both teaching and combating poverty to create a route to opportunity for 11–16 year olds in the borough.

Liberal Democrat group leader Sam Al-Hamdani said: “It is crazy that the Government’s plans to improve our town’s education offer focuses on the Eton Star College – which will only benefit a small group of students from across the region who are already performing well above this level.

“The Department for Education is going to be spending millions of pounds on a sixth form in prime town centre site, when far more children are being failed at a much earlier age. It’s just wrong priorities.”

The research from Teach First shows that in Oldham, 23.8% of persistently disadvantaged young people will disappear from education or training within six months of leaving Year 11, compared to 10.6% of non-disadvantaged young people and 18.4% of shorter-term disadvantaged young people. Effectively, this means that persistently disadvantaged pupils are over twice as likely to become NEET at 16 than their non-disadvantaged peers.

Councillor Al-Hamdani continued: “The Department for Education needs a proper plan for how to stop these children being trapped into a vicious cycle of deprivation, leading to poor education, leading to more deprivation. 

“These children aren’t even getting close to the grades that would get them to the proposed Eton Star. The Government is abdicating responsibility for changing that. And that’s simply not good enough.”

The Teach First report is available at https://www.teachfirst.org.uk/reports/class-dismissed-closing-gap-persistently-disadvantaged-pupils