Deprivation linked to poor GCSE results

School pupils from deprived backgrounds in Rochdale are half as likely to get five or more A* to C GCSE passes, including English and Maths, than their more affluent peers.

New figures show that Rochdale school children who are not in receipt of free school meals have 49.3% chance of getting five or more A* to C passes, but that figure slumps to 22.7% for those who do get free school meals.

The figures show that of Rochdale Borough’s 32.937 pupils at school, 5,971 are in receipt of free school meals – 18.1% of the total.

Of the 10 Greater Manchester Local Authorities, only Manchester (30%) and Salford (23%) have greater percentages of pupils qualifying for free school meals.

A spokesperson for the Rochdale Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations said: "This is critical, not only as an indicator of the relative poverty within Local Authority areas, but also because of the link with under-achievement at school resulting in poverty passing from one generation to the next."