Welsh education: Making the grade? The poverty challenge

  • Wales
Bishop Hedley High School has a range of extra-curricular classes to encourage pupils.

One of the greatest challenges facing schools in Wales is the need to reduce the impact of poverty on educational underachievement.

Pupils from poorer backgrounds are less than half as likely to get five good GCSEs as their better-off classmates.

The Welsh Government's flagship Schools Challenge Cymru scheme aims to tackle the problem at 40 struggling secondary schools.

Bishop Hedley High School, in Merthyr Tydfil, is one of them, receiving extra funding, advice and support, for classroom and extra-curricular activities.

Watch Tom Sheldrick's report from the school:

The scale of the challenge:

Pupils seen as being from poorer backgrounds are those who qualify for free school meals, because their parents receive certain benefits.

81,538 pupils are eligible for FSM in Wales, which equates to an average of five pupils in a class of 30.

The performance of these pupils falls further behind their better-off classmates the older they get - the attainment gap widens.

Proportion of pupils on free school meals who achieve 5 A* - C grades at GCSE, including maths and English or Welsh:

  • Wales in 2012 - 23.4%

  • Wales in 2014 - 27.8%

  • Wales' target for 2017 - 37%

  • England in 2014 - 38%

  • Non-free school meals pupils in Wales in 2014 - 61.6%

Education Minister Huw Lewis has made tackling the attainment gap his main priority, but last week, a committee of Assembly Members warned "the pace of change is not sufficient."

A great deal of work remains to be done, to break the cycle where young people from areas with a shortage of qualifications and high unemployment find themselves suffering from a lack of aspiration.

Raising aspiration at Bishop Hedley High School:

The Schools Challenge Cymru scheme, launched by the Welsh Government last spring, will see £20m spent to improve standards at 40 struggling schools in deprived areas.

There has been little time to see turnarounds in performance yet, but it is hoped the schools involved will have better GCSEs results, especially from their poorer pupils, this summer.

As a Catholic school, Bishop Hedley takes pupils from a wide area, across the Heads of the Valleys. 23% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, but the real number is likely to be much higher.

Increased funding has been used on strengthening key skills, like literacy, and the school says there has already been an impact of achievement.

Three new specialist literacy teachers work on bridging links with primary schools, withdrawal programmes for small groups of struggling pupils, and bring down class sizes overall, which allows teachers to intervene more to raise standards.

As part of the so-called Pupil Offer, Bishop Hedley has also supported a range of extra-curricular activities, from gymnastics to an after-school comic book drawing club.

Year 9 Daniel created 'Aberdare man' in his own image:

Pupils say the club will help their performance in key subjects at GCSE, and some are hoping to pursue a career in design.

Another pupil who is certainly ambitious is 14-year-old Chloe Evans, who lives on the Gurnos Estate in Merthyr.

She is eligible for free school meals, as her mother can't work because of her health.

Chloe is very good at science - and taking her RE GCSE early.

Chloe wants to be a doctor or a vet in the future.

Her mother Nicola told us: "I've always taught my children - 'you can do anything you want to do. But at the end of the day - they've got to put in the hard work."