Responding to evidence in the Ofsted annual report today that state schools are failing their brightest pupils Sir Peter Lampl, Chairman of the Sutton Trust said;

“The chief inspector paints a bleak picture of the opportunities for able pupils in our schools. Gifted and talented programmes have been in decline since funding was scrapped three years ago, and it is vital that the Government does more to support programmes for highly able students if they are to reach their potential.

Our polling, published earlier this month, has shown that 80% of parents want to see extra help for bright students.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

  1. The Sutton Trust is a foundation set up in 1997, dedicated to improving social mobility through education. It has published over 150 research studies and funded and evaluated programmes that have helped hundreds of thousands of young people of all ages, from early years through to access to the professions.
  2. Sutton Scholars, a programme to support able students through their first years of secondary education was launched in December this year. It will be run with the universities of Cambridge, Nottingham and Warwick and University College London.
  3. More details of the Sutton Trust’s policy recommendation for highly able students can be found in the Mobility Manifesto here.
  4. YouGov questioned a representative sample of 6,185 adults across Great Britain of which 1,169 were parents of school aged children (aged 5-18) between 26th and 29th August 2014. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+). See below for full table.

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