Earlier this year, I produced a report looking at the changes in pupil teacher ratios over the past fifty years as between London boroughs and the rest of England’s local authorities that have remained on the same boundaries since 1974. London boroughs generally have had some of the ‘best’ PTRs throughout the past 50 years. As a result, it was no surprise to see how well schools in the London boroughs performed in the KS2 results for 2025, published by the DfE yesterday.

It is interesting to look at just one measure, the percentage of pupils achieving the higher standard in Reading, and the percentage change in this measure over the past decade or so.

	2015/16	2024/25
	higher	higher	difference
LA	Reading	Reading
Waltham Forest	15%	44%	29%
Redbridge	19%	45%	26%
Westminster	18%	43%	25%
Haringey	20%	43%	23%
Newham	18%	41%	23%
Hammersmith and Fulham	24%	46%	22%
Luton	11%	33%	22%
Merton	22%	44%	22%
Barking and Dagenham	15%	37%	22%
Enfield	15%	37%	22%
Sutton	25%	47%	22%
Hackney	21%	42%	21%
Brent	16%	37%	21%
Barnet	24%	44%	20%
Bexley	20%	40%	20%
Lewisham	19%	39%	20%
Southwark	19%	39%	20%
Slough	19%	39%	20%
Tower Hamlets	18%	38%	20%
Birmingham	14%	34%	20%
Leicester	11%	31%	20%
Trafford	27%	47%	20%
Solihull	20%	39%	19%
Hillingdon	19%	38%	19%
Ealing	18%	37%	19%
Wolverhampton	14%	33%	19%
Barnsley	13%	32%	19%
Thurrock	13%	32%	19%
Doncaster	11%	30%	19%
Camden	23%	42%	19%
Greenwich	22%	41%	19%
Croydon	17%	36%	19%
Richmond upon Thames	36%	54%	18%
Kingston upon Hull, City of	15%	33%	18%
Kensington and Chelsea	30%	48%	18%
Blackburn with Darwen	13%	31%	18%
Walsall	13%	31%	18%
Knowsley	12%	30%	18%
North East Lincolnshire	11%	29%	18%
Lambeth	23%	40%	17%
Stockport	22%	39%	17%
Warrington	21%	38%	17%
Stockton-on-Tees	16%	33%	17%
Bromley	27%	44%	17%
Wandsworth	25%	42%	17%
Harrow	24%	41%	17%
Milton Keynes	19%	36%	17%
Sandwell	13%	30%	17%

Leaving aside the City of London, with its one primary school that has been excluded form the dataset, 28 of the London boroughs appear in the table. This compares with 20 local authorities outside of London. None of the latter are ‘shire’ counties. Not even the Home Counties of Surrey or Hertfordshire make it into the list.

Looking at the other end of the table, there is a preponderance of counties authorities in the list

Tameside	15%	28%	13%
Southend-on-Sea	20%	33%	13%
South Gloucestershire	20%	33%	13%
Telford and Wrekin	19%	32%	13%
St. Helens	18%	31%	13%
Rochdale	14%	27%	13%
Portsmouth	14%	27%	13%
Blackpool	13%	26%	13%
Oldham	13%	26%	13%
Rutland	23%	36%	13%
Cheshire East	22%	35%	13%
Cambridgeshire	22%	35%	13%
Lancashire	17%	30%	13%
Bedford	16%	29%	13%
Cheshire West and Chester	22%	34%	12%
Havering	22%	34%	12%
Herefordshire, County of	21%	33%	12%
Nottingham	15%	27%	12%
Gateshead	20%	32%	12%
Cornwall	20%	32%	12%
Torbay	20%	32%	12%
East Sussex	19%	31%	12%
South Tyneside	18%	30%	12%
Derbyshire	18%	30%	12%
Suffolk	18%	30%	12%
Swindon	18%	30%	12%
Derby	14%	26%	12%
Warwickshire	23%	35%	12%
Oxfordshire	23%	35%	12%
Gloucestershire	23%	35%	12%
Southampton	17%	29%	12%
Hampshire	23%	34%	11%
Devon	23%	34%	11%
Bristol, City of	22%	33%	11%
North Somerset	22%	33%	11%
Lincolnshire	17%	28%	11%
Central Bedfordshire	17%	28%	11%
County Durham	20%	31%	11%
Calderdale	20%	31%	11%
Shropshire	20%	31%	11%
Sefton	18%	29%	11%
Norfolk	18%	29%	11%
East Riding of Yorkshire	18%	28%	10%
Wiltshire	23%	33%	10%
Darlington	22%	32%	10%
West Berkshire	25%	34%	9%
Bath and North East Somerset	27%	36%	9%
Brighton and Hove	26%	35%	9%
Northumberland	21%	29%	8%
Isle of Wight	16%	23%	7%

Even among the unitary authorities in the list, some, such as the East riding of Yorkshire and West Berkshire might be considered predominantly rural in nature.

So, what might be deduced from this data? Parental help does make a difference. Has the ‘gentrification’ of Walthamstow help propel it to the top of the table? To consider the issue of parental support versus government funding for schools it is worth considering the present percentage of achievement at this higher grade by schools in two parliamentary constituencies that I am familiar with; Tottenham, where I started my teaching career, and Oxford East, part of the city where I have lived and worked for the past 45 years.

SCHOOL Higher Grade RWM in KS” 2025	TOTENHAM	OXFORD EAST
A	35
B	27
C	23
D	18	18
E	17	17
F	15
G	15
H	15
I	14	14
J	13	13
K	13	13
L		13
M	12
N	11	11
O	10	10
P	9	9
Q		9
R	8
S	8
T	7	7
U	7	7
V	7	7
W	7	7
X	6
Y	6
Z	5	5
AA		5
AB		5
AC	4	4
AD	4	4
AE	3	3
AF		3
AG	2	3
AH		2
AI		2
AJ	0	0
AK		0
total	322	193
schools	28	27
average	11.5	7.1

Both might be seen as constituencies with significant pockets of deprivation, but also areas subject to ‘gentrification’ in recent years. Schools in Oxford East have a profile with lower percentages than schools in Tottenham. How much of the difference can be ascribed to parents, and how much to better funding for London schools? Of course, class sizes also matter. But, as both are urban areas, the issue of small rural schools doesn’t really arise as it would if one compared Oxford East with its neighbouring constituency of Henley.

This work is at an early stage, but it does pose the question about the deep structure of school funding and, especially, the use of average salary data in any calculations in the funding of schools.