DISADVANTAGED secondary school pupils in Bradford fell further behind their classmates during the coronavirus pandemic, new figures show.

The statistics have been described by one education union as “very worrying” and a local MP has reiterated warnings about the “long-term damaging consequences” of closing schools during the pandemic.

Department for Education figures show 26.2 per cent of disadvantaged children in Bradford achieved grade five or above in GCSE English and maths in 2021-22, compared to 48.5 per cent for all other children.

It meant the attainment gap was 22.3 percentage points last year – up from 19.3 in 2018-19, the last academic year uninterrupted by Covid-19.

Nationally the attainment gap also rose over the same period, but by a smaller amount.

Tom Bright of National Education Union in Bradford, told the Telegraph & Argus: “I’m not surprised at the figures, but it is a very worrying statistic.”

He added: “Helping disadvantaged children is more difficult than it appears. If a child is living in poverty, or if there are multiple children to a household, just providing them with a laptop, isn't necessarily the solution.

“They may not have anywhere they can go to study that is quiet. Or potentially they are one amongst three kids, and the new laptop is the cause of more problems rather than enabling the children to access learning.

“There were programmes during the pandemic to get laptops out to students, but if there is no Wifi where they are, then that becomes more of a problem.”

He added: “The difference between the disadvantaged children and all others is too great. The council talks about narrowing the gap and the gap is widening – so that is a real concern.”

In response to the latest Key Stage 4 performance data figures, Philip Davies, MP for Shipley, said: “Some of us warned about the long-term damaging consequences of closing schools during the pandemic - especially when children had such a minimal risk from Covid - and this shows how damaging those school lockdowns were.

“These lockdowns will go down in history as one of the most idiotic public policies of all time.  I am just sorry that so few people at the time wanted to listen when some of us were warning of the damage they were doing.”

Nationally, 29.5 per cent of disadvantaged children reached grade five or above in English and maths, whereas 56.8 per cent of all other children achieved the grades.

It means the attainment gap rose from 25.2 percentage points in 2018-19 to 27.3 in 2021-22.

Education charity SHINE said the link between deprivation and children's school performance existed long before Covid-19, but that the pandemic "amplified existing inequities".

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