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Foundation stage profiles: Achievement gap persists at age five

Children from deprived areas continue to lag significantly behind their peers in development levels at age five.

The latest Foundation Stage Profile results show no change in the achievement gap for children living in the 30 per cent most deprived areas. However, this year's results show a slight improvement on 2005-2006 in all of the 13 assessment areas. Just 35 per cent of children in the poorest areas in England were found to be working securely within the early learning goals, compared with 51 per cent of children from other areas.

Girls continued to achieve higher scores than boys in every assessment area.

Observational assessments of children are carried out by practitioners to nine-point scales at the end of the Foundation Stage. A child is working securely within an early learning goal if they score six or more points.

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