Mind the Gap: What the Latest DfE Data Tells Us About Disadvantage
· @ntaylor
The Department for Education has published its Key Stage 4 performance data for 2025/26, and there is a small glimmer of good news. For the first time since the pandemic, the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has narrowed slightly.
But “slightly” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Only 27.5% of disadvantaged pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and Maths this summer. For their peers, the figure was 54.3%. That is roughly one in four, compared with more than one in two.
As someone who has spent over twenty years in classrooms and school leadership, I want to unpack what these numbers tell us, how the sector is responding to the government’s plans, and why this matters so much here in Cornwall.
What the data shows
The headline gap is still wider than it was before the pandemic. Here is how the two key measures compare across state-funded schools in England.
| Measure | 2018/19 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attainment 8: disadvantaged | 36.7 | 34.9 | 35.6 |
| Attainment 8: all other pupils | 50.3 | 50.4 | 50.7 |
| Attainment 8 gap (points) | 13.6 | 15.5 | 15.1 |
|
Grade 5+ English & maths: disadva ntaged |
24.7% | 25.8% | 27.5% |
| Grade 5+ English & maths: all other pupils | 49.9% | 53.1% | 54.3% |
| Grade 5+ gap (percentage points) | 25.2 | 27.3 | 26.8 |
Source: DfE, Key Stage 4 performance 2025/26, Table 3. “All other pupils” = not known to be disadvantaged.
Three things stand out to me.
- The gap has finally stopped widening. The Attainment 8 gap grew every year from 13.5 points in 2019/20 to 15.5 points in 2024/25. This year it fell to 15.1. That is welcome, but it remains wider than the 13.6 points recorded in 2018/19.
- Disadvantaged pupils are still further behind than before Covid. Their average Attainment 8 score of 35.6 is below the 36.7 they achieved in 2018/19, while their peers have edged ahead.
- The disadvantaged cohort is growing fast. 188,730 disadvantaged pupils reached the end of KS4 this year, up from 143,816 in 2018/19. That is an increase of around 31%. Disadvantaged pupils now make up almost 30% of the year group, up from about 26.5%.
That last point is easily overlooked. Schools are being asked to close a gap for a group of young people that is getting bigger every year. Any strategy that treats disadvantage as a small, targeted add-on is no longer fit for purpose.
A note on the data: 2019/20 and 2020/21 results were based on centre- and teacher-assessed grades, so comparisons
with those years should be made with care.
How the sector has responded
This data lands against the backdrop of the government’s Schools White Paper, published in February 2026. Stakeholders across education have expressed a range of reactions to its proposals.
Reducing disadvantage and funding reform
Commentators have welcomed the white paper’s cen
tral focus on reducing attainment gaps between disadvantaged children and their peers.
- The Education Endowment Foundation and the Sutton Trust praised the focus on reducing disadvantage. Both warned that the targets would be challenging, and would require effective implementation and wider action on poverty.
- Thinktanks including the Education Policy Institute supported more targeted funding, noting persistent gaps among long-term disadvantaged pupils.
The new figures bear out those warnings. A 0.4-point narrowing in a single year is progress, but at that pace it would take years simply to get back to where we were in 2019. Ambition at national level now has to translate into consistent, well-evidenced practice in every school.
Closer to home: Mission Coastal
One of the white paper’s most significant announcements for us in the South West is Mission Coastal, a new programme to improve outcomes for young people in disadvantaged coastal areas, including Cornwall.
Modelled on the success of the London Challenge, it will work with schools, academy trusts and local partners. Local partnership boards will bring together teachers, school leaders, councils and community representatives. Where barriers such as low parental engagement persist, it will take a “test, learn and grow” approach to build evidence on what works.
Cornwall’s MPs were clear about why this matters. They pointed to a widening attainment gap for disadvantaged children in Cornwall and the South West, poor transport links, long journeys to school and college, and limited post-16 options in remote communities.
I recognise every one of those barriers. Coastal disadvantage is shaped by geography, seasonal work, isolation and stretched services, and it rarely looks like disadvantage in a city. That is exactly why a place-based approach is so promising. The test will be whether it is properly funded, whether the evidence it gathers reaches classrooms quickly, and whether schools are supported to act on it.
What schools can do now
National programmes take time to reach the classroom. In the meantime, schools and trusts do not need to wait. In my experience, the schools that make real progress on the disadvantage gap tend to do a few things well.
- Know their disadvantaged pupils as individuals, not as a single category. Long-term disadvantage, attendance, SEND and rurality all interact.
- Treat equity as whole-school strategy, owned by leaders and governors, rather than something bolted on through Pupil Premium spending alone.
- Prioritise high-quality teaching first, drawing on the best available evidence, before reaching for interventions.
- Evaluate honestly, using their own data to stop what is not working and invest in what is.
How I can help
Through Equity Education Services, I work with schools and trusts to turn ambition on disadvantage into practical, measurable action. My work is built around the a framework that helps leaders audit where they are, prioritise what matters most, and evaluate the impact of what they do.
If these figures have prompted questions about your own school or trust, I would love to talk. Get in touch to find out how we can close the gap together.
Nicole is the founder of Equity Education Services, an independent education consultancy based in Cornwall. She has over twenty years’ experience in teaching and school leadership, including roles as Head of Science and School Improvement Lead.