The Inquiry into White Working Class Educational Outcomes was launched in 2025 to understand why white working class pupils in England often do less well at school than their peers. It aimed to find out what’s working, what isn’t, and why – by listening to the people who know best: children, families, teachers, and communities.
This independent Inquiry was commissioned by Star Academies, a national multi-academy trust and funded by the Christopher and Henry Oldfield Trust, a charity that supports initiatives addressing some of society’s most pressing challenges. The research was led by Public First, a policy, research, and strategy consultancy, with support from a full-time secretariat.
The Inquiry was guided by a panel of experts from education, policy, and community leadership. They directed the research, took part in evidence sessions, and helped to shape the final recommendations.
You can read more about each panel member on our panel page.
There are 8.45 million pupils in schools in England. 2.17 million of these are known to be eligible for Free School Meals (FSM). Of these pupils, more than half – 1.25 million – are white British. White British pupils known to be eligible for FSM therefore make up around 15% of the total school population in England.1
Over the last two decades, England has made significant progress in improving educational outcomes for many groups. However, white British FSM pupils now experience some of the weakest educational outcomes in the country across all stages of education, including being half as likely to secure at least a grade 4 in their English and Maths GCSEs. Alan Milburn’s interim report, Young people and work, identifies these qualifications as “one of the best defences against a young person becoming NEET”.
The Inquiry describes this as the white working class disadvantage gap: the persistent gap in educational attainment between white working class pupils and their peers.
Defining ‘white working class’ within education research is challenging. For the purposes of analysing national educational outcomes data, the Inquiry primarily uses white British pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) as the best available pupil-level proxy for identifying white working class disadvantage within national datasets.2
However, FSM eligibility is an imperfect measure. The earnings threshold for FSM eligibility in England is currently extremely low – net household earnings of less than £7,400 per year under Universal Credit criteria.3 Many families who would identify as working class, or who experience significant economic insecurity and limited access to opportunity, therefore fall outside the official FSM measure, even after the planned changes to increase eligibility to all children in households receiving Universal Credit from September.
The Inquiry therefore believes that the true scale of white working class disadvantage is likely to be substantially larger than the national pupil-level data alone currently captures. For this reason, while educational attainment analysis in this report uses white British FSM pupils, wider polling and qualitative research undertaken uses white British C2DE socio-economic classifications, allowing the Inquiry to understand a broader range of experiences, attitudes and perceptions amongst white working class children, young people and families.
While poverty remains the strongest predictor of educational underachievement across all ethnic groups, white British FSM pupils (who make up over half of all FSM pupils) experience the weakest educational outcomes of any major ethnic group in England. This suggests that white working class underachievement cannot be understood solely as a question of poverty, but reflects a distinctive combination of socioeconomic disadvantage, place, culture and educational experience.
In 2024-25, only 63% of white British FSM pupils achieved the expected standard in the Phonics Screening Check, compared with 83% of non-FSM pupils.4 By the end of primary school, only 43% achieved the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Maths at Key Stage 2, compared with 62% of non-FSM pupils.5 By Key Stage 4, only 36% achieved a Grade 4 or above in English and Maths GCSE, compared with 72% of non-FSM pupils.6 In other words, nearly two thirds of white British FSM pupils finish compulsory education without the minimum qualifications needed to access the vast majority of further education and employment opportunities.
This pattern is also reflected in Progress 8 scores, which measure the progress pupils make between the end of primary school and the end of secondary school, compared with pupils nationally who had similar prior attainment. White British FSM pupils consistently record some of the lowest Progress 8 scores in England. In 2024-25, white British FSM pupils had an average Progress 8 score of -0.9, which means that, on average, pupils achieved 0.9 grades lower per subject than pupils with similar prior attainment nationally.7
The Inquiry’s analysis also found that these patterns have remained remarkably consistent over time. Across the last decade, White British pupils have consistently experienced some of the weakest educational outcomes in England.