Poor local transport linked to struggling schools

New research from SchoolDash has found that there is an alarming overlap between places in England with slow public transport and places with struggling secondary schools.

Researchers complimented education data with comparisons of schools using journey times from the Department for Transport and found clusters of bad transport and underachieving schools in places such as Norfolk and north-east England.

SchoolDash also found that same coldspots repeatedly appear in findings on academic underachievement. This includes ‘left behind’ towns in the north west and north east, declining seaside towns in the south, or along the Norfolk coast. However, even in richer areas, there was a suggested link between poor transport and lower school results. London has high levels of connectivity in transport - and despite deep pockets of deprivation, some of the best school results in the country.

Across secondary schools, 31 per cent of those with fast public transport links are graded as Outstanding by Ofsted. Among secondary schools in places with slow travel times, 17 per cent are Outstanding.

In comparison, among all secondary schools, 24 per cent are rated Inadequate or Requires Improvement. But in schools in deprived areas with longer travel times, there are 66 per cent of schools in these bottom Ofsted categories.

The analysis also claims that the places with poor transport and under-performing schools were the seats where voters swung to the Conservatives in December’s General Election.