Basildon schoolchildren have lowest attainment of any large town

The analysis, which looks at the educational attainment of pupils who sat their GCSEs in the 2012 to 2013 school year, said differences in incomes are part of the reason why young people in smaller towns secured better outcomes.

It looked back to pupils who left school a decade ago as “they are the most recent pupils for whom data exists on their progress after school, up to age 22 years”.

The Office for National Statistics used a score which summarises the educational attainment of young people at different points throughout their education to compare towns.

Town - Basildon

A score of zero was the average score of all areas, while negative scores reflected poorer than average performance and positive scores reflected better than average attainment.

Basildon was named as the large town with the lowest attainment, with a score of around minus five.

The Department for Education said it is making “additional investment to boost improvements” in 55 areas with the weakest educational outcomes, but Basildon is not set to receive this additional funding.

'We're pro-education'

Basildon Council leader Andrew Baggott was not surprised by the findings of the ONS analysis but acknowledged a lot of work has gone into improving the education of Basildon’s schoolchildren over the last decade.

He said: “We’ve known for a while there are issues with education in the borough.

“Ten years ago there was an issue with kids leaving primary school being unable to read or do arithmetic properly or do, which wasn’t setting them up well enough for secondary school, but the landscape has changed.

“We’ve put a lot of resources into supporting schools and education and if you were to look back to more recent years, I think you’d find there’s a big difference in the results.

“We’re very pro-education and Essex County Council has been driving that. Last year saw the Essex Year of Reading which promoted literacy and reading which was very successful, and this year the county council has a focus on maths.”

County council 'firmly committed' to Basildon improvements

Tony Ball, the county councillor responsible for education, said: “We are firmly committed to improving educational standards in Basildon and we are confident significant progress has been made to raise attainment levels since the students in this study sat their GCSEs in the 2012/13 academic school year.

“However, we know there is much more which can still be done and we are currently working on a number of targeted projects in Basildon which are having a positive impact.

“Essex Youth Service has utilised Levelling Up funds to develop a Year 10 pilot Enhanced Education Programme (EEP).

"This focuses on building on young people’s motivation, resilience, confidence, and wellbeing through a variety of interventions including employer experiences and career planning.

"EEP will continue to be delivered to Year 10 students across Basildon for the next two academic years."

Councillor - Tony Ball

Mr Ball continued: “We are also working in partnership with Basildon Council and the Greater Essex Careers Hub to engage pupils on opportunities in the area to raise aspirations and boost engagement and achievement.

"This includes a recent event where students in Year 10 and Year 12 had the opportunity to meet employers delivering degree apprenticeships and learn how to prepare for selective higher education courses such as medicine and Oxbridge.

“We continue to provide bespoke support to our early years settings, schools and further education providers as needed via our school improvement teams.

“As a council, we remain committed to ensuring all pupils in Essex receive the best possible education and we are working closely with schools and our partners to raise aspirations for every young person in Essex.”