Maths gap between high and low performing primary pupils in England one of the highest in developed world says Education Policy Institute report

• Our analysis shows that England has one of the largest gaps between its high and low performers out of all developed nations. England’s top performing maths pupils achieve a very high standard but the bottom performers lag far behind.
  • Full details in figure 1.3 on page 16
• The tail of low performing pupils supports the case for targeted support for vulnerable pupils throughout the course of primary school and early years education. If England is to be considered world class at primary in maths, the performance of pupils at the bottom must be improved.

Overall performance

England compares well with other developed nations at primary level maths - but trails behind the top performing nations:

• To match the performance of the top-performing nations, we estimate 90 per cent of pupils would need to meet the government’s expected standard in Key Stage 2 maths by the end of primary school.
  • In 2016, only 75 per cent of pupils met this standard.
• This means that, in order to reach this world-class benchmark of 90 per cent, an additional 90,000 pupils would need to achieve the expected standard in England.
• Northern Ireland performs better in maths than England, with around 80 per cent of pupils in Northern Ireland reaching a world-class standard.

Local and regional findings

When examining the performance of England’s regions and local areas against the top performing countries, there are clear disparities:

• No local authorities in England reached the world-class benchmark of 90 per cent of pupils meeting the expected standard in primary level maths.
  • 83 per cent of pupils met the expected standard in highest performing Kensington and Chelsea.
  • Only 60 per cent of pupils in lowest performing Bedford.
• London dominates the top performers, with 17 of the 20 top performing local authorities in London.
• Combined with previous EPI secondary school analysis, some areas in the North East perform reasonably well at primary, but then decline rapidly by the end of secondary.
  • Redcar and Cleveland ranks 16^th in our primary table - but then falls to 122^nd out of 150 authorities by the end of secondary school.
• Some areas in the East of England and the East and West Midlands perform consistently poorly in both phases of education. 

Opportunity Areas

• The government’s 12 Opportunity Areas, considered the most challenged on social mobility, show a wide range in performance - spanning from 69 per cent of pupils in Blackpool, to 59 per cent in Norwich.
• Overall, only 65 per cent of pupils in Opportunity Areas met the expected standard. This poor performance against the world class benchmark is unsurprising yet we find that there are many other areas where performance is just as poor, or even worse. The government should take these areas into account when it creates new Opportunity Areas.

Commenting on the findings, Natalie Perera, Executive Director and Head of Research at the Education Policy Institute, said:

“Our new analysis shows that, overall, England performs reasonably well at primary level compared to many other developed nations – although we still have some way to go in order to match the highest performing countries.  The biggest cause for concern, however, is the huge gulf between England’s top performing primary pupils, and those lagging behind at the bottom - one of the largest out of all developed countries. 

"If we want to match standards in some of the world-leading nations and secure greater equity in our education system, more must be done to raise the attainment of our lowest, and often most vulnerable, pupils."