Sir Peter Lampl’s social mobility charity the Sutton Trust has revealed that thousands of disadvantaged pupils miss out on taking a modern language or humanities subject at GCSE.
Chances
As a result, their access to the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) curriculum is being limited.
Sir Peter Lampl, Chairman of the Sutton Trust and of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:
“It is good to see that schools are offering EBacc subjects to more of their students successfully. It is important that all students have the opportunity to study the full range of academic subjects, particularly those who are both highly able and disadvantaged. At the same time, it is vital that the introduction of the EBacc is not at the expense of arts and vocational subject.”
The Sutton Trust’s Changing the Subject research brief identified 15,000 disadvantaged pupils who should be expected to study either history or geography, but don’t. Meanwhile, 11,000 pupils miss out on taking a modern language.
Curriculum
The EBacc is a performance measure for schools across the five core GCSE academic subjects. Its introduction has led many schools to make changes to their curriculum in favour of more academic subjects, but at the expense of some arts and vocational subjects.
Despite this, the Sutton Trust’s researchers found that disadvantaged pupils were the ones benefitting most at schools who had changed their curriculum significantly since the introduction of the EBacc. This was mainly because they were most likely to take on EBacc subjects.
However, just studying EBacc subjects limits the opportunities for students who have the potential to take on more. The report warned that setting EBacc as the ‘gold standard’ secondary school curriculum could impact upon the educational experiences of those students for whom it isn’t appropriate.
Recommendations
Dr Rebecca Allen and Dave Thomson of Education Datalab, who authored the report, advised that all pupils should have fair access to sit EBacc subjects, however the government should consider what type of Key Stage 4 curriculum is appropriate for those not entering the EBacc.
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