Real reason why London schools do better than the rest of the country | Letters

Statistically, white British pupils perform worse at school than those from an ethnic minority background, says Chris Dunne. London’s ethnic composition drives better academic results

It is very dispiriting to see the children’s commissioner joining the ranks of politicians, journalists and other commentators in pointing the finger at “poor” schools to explain the so-called “north-south divide” in secondary school educational attainment (Poverty and funding gap blight children’s futures in the north, 26 March).

As the commissioner herself implicitly acknowledged by her choice of places like Hackney to compare their performance with that of “northern” schools, the only significant divide in England is the one between London and the rest of the country. And here, for the few people still left interested in basing national policy on facts and empirical evidence, rather than on anecdotes, hunches and personal preference, there is an emphatic answer to the question “Why are London schools so successful?”

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2pMnPhI