General Election 2024: What will it take to close the attainment gap?

The attainment gap is the difference in education outcomes between poorer students and their better-off peers. The gap had been gradually decreasing throughout the early 2010s, before progress stalled in the years before the pandemic. Since the crisis, the gap has widened considerably, with 10 years of progress now wiped out. Since then, the cost of living crisis and a surge in mental health problems among children and young people have contributed to growing absences from school, which are likely to further widen the gap between poorer pupils and their peers. Following our recent briefing on the attainment gap, this webinar will focus on the trends in and drivers of the attainment gap and the role of policymakers and schools in tackling it.