The Sunderland School Defying the Odds for White Working-Class Pupils

On GCSE results day two years ago, a reporter stood in the hall of a Sunderland school and watched teenagers open their envelopes, their faces showing pride and some surprise. The school was Hetton Academy, in the former mining town of Hetton-le-Hole. Almost half its pupils receive free school meals, which means their parents are on low incomes, yet its results matched those of the most affluent parts of southern England.

This summer the school reached another milestone: 80% of its pupils passed maths and English at grade 4 or above. A grade 4 is roughly the old 'C', and is seen as a passport to jobs and further education. Nearly all of the pupils come from white, working-class backgrounds, a group that has drawn political attention for some time. This week, former Cabinet minister Baroness Morris launched the second phase of her independent inquiry into why children from those communities lag behind their peers. Education Secretary Lucy Powell said too many white, working-class children are falling behind at every stage of their education.

Hetton belongs to a small group. In the three years to 2025, only 339 non-selective schools in England averaged an 80% pass rate in maths and English, out of around 3,000 that published the data. Those schools tend to have fewer pupils from the lowest-income families, are less likely to be in deprived areas, and have fewer children with special educational needs. They also have a lower proportion of White British pupils than other schools. Prof John Jerrim of University College London says England's system is failing poorer pupils: since 2010, despite GCSE reforms widely seen as raising standards, the chances of the poorest children passing these exams have barely changed. "It's really hard to move the dial," he says.

Seamus Murphy, chief executive of Turner Schools, which runs schools in deprived areas, thinks the push for higher standards under Michael Gove from 2010 brought "vision and challenge" to the system, but does not work for every pupil. Where families are struggling with the cost of living, he says, an 18-year-old on minimum wage is "a big deal", and parents may be tempted to steer children toward work. Baroness Morris's earlier findings point the same way: many white, working-class families have lost faith that school guarantees future success.

Hetton itself began in the 1960s as Hetton School and struggled for years. The closure of the Eppleton mine in the 1980s hit the town hard, and families often sent children elsewhere for schooling. A 2021 Ofsted report rated it "requires improvement", the last before it became an academy. By 2024 Ofsted called it "rapidly improving". This year's 80% pass rate is high for Sunderland and well above the England averages of 57% in maths and 60% in English. Principal Vicky Pinkney says it is now the "school of choice" for local families. The region still has gaps: only 3% of GCSEs in the North East were awarded a grade 9 this summer, against 8% in London, according to Ofqual, though the North East ranks better on other measures.

The school's methods are practical. Each morning, teachers line a separate entrance path for Year 11 pupils, stop some and quiz them on their subjects, solving problems on a whiteboard; who gets stopped is discussed at regular review meetings. Everyone gets an hour of extra study four days a week after school, with two hours on maths for those stuck on it. Before exams there are 'Revision Sundays' with a shared roast lunch. In the autumn, parents of Year 11 pupils are invited to a 'Fish and Tips' evening, where they get advice and a bag of revision resources tailored to each child, then eat school-funded fish and chips with staff. Pinkney says parents see her as "just another Mam". Ofsted praised the "positive relationships" between pupils and staff, and a Cambridge study commissioned by the government found that pupils who feel they belong see significantly higher GCSE attainment.

Challenges remain. Prof Lindsey Macmillan, who worked on the inquiry, says these pupils start school already behind and the gap widens as they disengage in secondary school; the inquiry found the connection to school "falls off a cliff" at the move to secondary, with poor attendance following. Some parents say they did not need qualifications to get work, a message Pinkney also hears, though Macmillan notes qualifications now matter more than in decades with more industrial jobs and on-the-job training. The inquiry also found parents often put happiness and life-readiness alongside or above high grades. Macmillan asks why maths and English GCSEs have become so decisive for life chances, and wants more entry-level apprenticeships and on-the-job learning.

At Hetton, about 700 pupils have just returned from half-term. Pinkney believes other schools could do the same. She was raised by a single mother with little money, she says, and "my school helped me to be able to achieve." Whether that can be reproduced widely is what Baroness Morris's inquiry, still under way, will be asked to weigh.