Urgent Reform Needed for White Working Class Pupils

A year-long inquiry says major change is needed to stop white working-class children being failed by England's education system.

It makes 24 recommendations, including better access to transport, childcare and vocational routes.

The findings come after data showed disadvantaged pupils in West Berkshire are among the worst in the country, sitting in the bottom level of improvement.

Schools have been accused of shifting resources towards securing good Ofsted results rather than improving outcomes for disadvantaged children.

On April 6, West Berkshire Council received a letter from the DfE regional director which stated that the national average for outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in 2025 was 47 per cent. "Phonics results and Key Stage 2 West Berkshire is not doing as well as it should," she said.

The report, from the Independent Inquiry into White Working Class Educational Outcomes, was commissioned by the multi-academy trust Star Academies and is supported by the Department for Education. It spoke to thousands of young people and their parents as well as hundreds of teachers, and analysed data on 1.25 million white British pupils on free school meals.

Inquiry co-chair Baroness Estelle Morris said responsibility "cannot sit with schools alone" and said the issue was not down to a lack of aspiration or effort from young people.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said generations had been "robbed of opportunity". "The communities in this report are my communities," she said. "I know what they've given this country and what this country has failed to give back."

Of 153 councils, West Berkshire was near the bottom. The council says a history of underinvestment has left its school improvement service running below capacity for years, limiting what it can do.

Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter