The educational challenge
Too many of our children still face a tough and sometimes bleak start to their lives. Consider the following facts:
- Of the 6% of secondary schools which are still rated as failing, the majority are in the 5% most deprived areas of the country.
- Only 17% of children from disadvantaged backgrounds enter higher education compared to 50% from the upper and middle income brackets.
- The richest 10% have a 65% better chance of getting five A*-C grades at GCSE than the poorest 10%.
- Almost a fifth of children in the UK live in the bottom 10% of deprived areas.
- There are 28% more teenage pregnancies in the 10% most deprived areas compared with the national average.
- Almost 18% of children live in households where there is no wage earner.
Despite educational spending on a par with the rest of Europe, the system is too often failing those for whom education should be one of the few escape routes into a life that is personally and professionally rewarding. If left unresolved, this unhappy start in life feeds through to a cycle of multi-deprivation, continuing to deepen the economic divisions between those who prosper and those who fall behind.
Our Response: The United Learning Trust
ULT is determined to be in the forefront of breaking this cycle of decline by promoting and delivering high quality education. We have a clear, passionate and focused vision for change. Our academies provide students with a rigorous and inclusive education: one that is in tune with the needs of the local communities and has a clear spiritual and moral dimension.
After four years we have made real progress. Out of our 8 academies taking GCSEs in 2007 the overall increase 5 A*-C was 22%. If you include Maths and English, the figures improved by 29%.
Many of the children who have achieved these results are socially disadvantaged. We have an average of 37% of pupils receiving free school meals against a national average of 14.3%.
Most of our academies are over-subscribed.
We still have a lot to do. But, across the country, we are making a real difference to the lives of a generation of students.
