Our Background

Globetown Learning Community’s model was started in Morpeth Secondary School, Tower Hamlets,
to address what we see as the most persistent failure in our education system:
the gap in attainment between young people from privileged and disadvantaged backgrounds.

A recent BECTA Research Report: ‘Meeting their Potential 2007’ highlighted a range of issues:

• Young people from prosperous areas are 47% more likely to get five or more
GCSE A–C grades compared to young people from deprived areas (DfES 2006).

• Around half of employees aged 25–29 without any GCSEs at grade C or above are paid less than
£6.50 per hour, compared to one in 10 of those with degrees or equivalent (DETI 2005/06).

• Thirty per cent of those from social class DE say they are not doing as well as
they had hoped in life, compared with 12% of those from social class AB.

• Educational underachievement is estimated to cost the UK £18 Billion in lost earnings per year.

Can we promote the achievement of the poorest and break the inter-generational cycle of deprivation?
Is it possible to remove the barriers to social mobility and bridge
the gap between privileged and disadvantaged young people?

Globetown Learning Community is attempting to do just that.