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Achievement and aspirations at school

The Millennium Cohort study attracted considerable publicity when it found that social class led to gaps in children's attainment at the age of 22 months. The Millennium study showed that the vocabulary scores of the sons and daughters of graduates were twelve months ahead of those with the least educated parents.

Birth cohort evidence also showed the importance of parental expectations and aspirations on a child's attainment levels. Parents are the biggest source of influence on their children's development. When parents get involved in helping their children to learn and have high aspirations for them this has a significant impact on their children's cognitive development, literacy and numeracy.

Parental involvement in a child's schooling for a child aged between seven and sixteen is a more powerful force than family background, size of family and level of parental education. Parental interest in their child's education has four times more influence on attainment by age 16 than socio-economic background [1]. Conversely, educational failure is increased by lack of parental interest in schooling. The former Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, in a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research in April 2006, noted that parental involvement is strongly associated with a positive adjustment in children, that can lead to improvement in school performance.

Young people living in some neighbourhoods were also found to be less likely to develop high aspirations. The Government responded to this evidence with the 2009 White Paper, Your Child, Your Schools, Our Future [2], announcing a drive to increase aspirations and attainment amongst disadvantaged groups.

References

  1. Bridging the Gap: New Opportunities for 16-18 year olds not in education, employment or training (PDF on external site, 2.5Mb), Social Exclusion Unit (1999)
  2. Your Child, Your Schools, Our Future, Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2009 (PDF, 2.4Mb)