The twenty seventh of my 40 donations goes to the Social Mobility Foundation charity (SMF).
The SMF is a charity that helps talented young people from low-income backgrounds enter top universities and professions. The SMF’s programmes include mentoring, university application support, work placements and skills sessions across the students’ sixth-form and university years.
I read and quote from the below BBC article which I found particularly thought provoking:
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-57558746
The Education Select Committee report warns that white pupils on free school meals underachieve from early years in school through to GCSE, A-levels and university entry, compared with pupils on free meals from other ethnic groups.
- At GCSE, in 2019, 18% of white British pupils on free meals achieved grade 5 in English and maths, compared with 23% for the average for pupils on free meals
- For university entry, 16% of white British pupils on free meals get places, compared with 59% of black African pupils on free meals, 59% of Bangladeshi pupils on free meals and 32% of black Caribbean pupils on free meals.
The underachievement is down to a “poisonous mix of place, family and local culture”, said Chris Zarraga, director of Schools North East, a regional network of head teachers in one of the areas with the biggest concentrations of disadvantaged white pupils.
Without tackling the underachievement of white working class pupils the wider aim of narrowing the attainment gap between rich and poor will fail, warned former Ofsted chief, Sir Michael Wilshaw.
