A worrying new report finds that children in the North East are trailing behind in their GCSE exams compared to their wealthier peers.
The data, conducted by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) this week, found students in poverty - defined as those eligible for free school meals for 80% of their time at school - were 1.6 GCSE grades behind their classmates in 2020.
It also found that the educational gap between pupils from a disadvantaged background and their better-off peers had not improved since 2011.
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