Government tried to decide whether to label students from ‘ordinary working families’

The Department for Education (DfE) has set out plans for measuring the education needs of students from “ordinary working families” – which it says makes up a third of all children.

The DfE published a consultation paper earlier this week which aims to find ways to provide “a clearer analysis of educational outcomes for ordinary working families”.

It comes in the wake of Prime Minister Theresa May’s repeated calls for the UK to address social mobility and help those who are “just about managing”.

While the paper says “there is no official definition of an ordinary working family”, it describes students fitting into the category as those who are not entitled to pupil premium, but who come from families earning “modest” or below median incomes. Read more