A child’s chances of getting into a high-performing secondary school increasingly depend on where they live, according to new research.

Virtually all of the areas containing few high-performing schools are in the North of England, analysis from thinktank Education Policy Institute (EPI) has found.

Local authority areas with consistently good access to high performing secondary schools - many of which are in London - saw the proportion of pupils with access to such schools rise from 49 per cent in 2010 to 58 per cent in 2015.

But in areas with fewer high performing school places - mainly in the North - only 5 per cent of pupils could access them in 2015, down from 6 per cent in 2010.

The new report from EPI comes just a week after the Department for Education published its Social Mobility Action Plan.

The plan has a “specific focus” on the third of the country with “the weakest educational performance and capacity to improve”, together with a continued targeting of the 12 opportunity areas that have been identified as social mobility cold spots.

But the analysis finds this will fail to help large areas that have virtually no high performing schools, like the North East, which has no designated opportunity areas.

Spread of success

The report defines a “high-performing school” as being in the top 30 per cent of schools for the progress pupils made between the end of primary school and their GCSEs.

Today’s report also finds:

• One-fifth of neighbourhoods in England - such as areas in Blackpool and Hartlepool - had no high performing secondary schools within reasonable travel distance.

• Of the 20 local areas with the biggest increases in high performing school places - 16 of which were in London - the proportion of such places rose from 36 per cent to 60 per cent from 2010 to 2015. The largest riser was Harrow in London.

• Of the 20 areas with the largest fall in high performing places, none of which were in London, the proportion of high performing places fell from 31 per cent in 2010 to 20 per cent in 2015. The biggest fall was in Blackburn with Darwen.

Natalie Perera, executive director and head of research at the EPI, said: “The government needs to do more to spread success out of areas such as London and the South East.

“If Opportunity Areas are the government’s answer to social mobility cold spots, then they are needed in areas such as the North East of England, where one is yet to be allocated.”

Challenges ahead

David Laws, executive chairman of EPI, said: “It is shocking to see that over recent years the access to high-quality secondary school places in England has become even more unequal.

“Government rhetoric about spreading opportunity is not being matched by experience in areas such as the North, North East and parts of the Midlands.

 “Justine Greening is clearly right to focus on this challenge - but this report shows just how much work the government has to do.”

A Department for Education spokesperson responded: “Academic standards are rising in our primary and secondary schools thanks to our reforms and the hard work of teachers.

“Nine out of 10 schools are now rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ and there are now 1.9 million more pupils in schools rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ than in 2010.

“As the education secretary said earlier this month when launching our plan to boost social mobility, we want to make sure opportunities are spread evenly across the country.

“That’s why we are targeting the areas that need the most support through the £72million Opportunity Areas programme, and by investing £280 million over the next two years to target resources at the schools most in need to improve their performance and deliver more good school places.”

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