The Great North South Divide

In 2004, a Sheffield University study suggested

·         “The north-south divide is getting wider”, and that  

·         People living in the south are likely to be better educated and earn more money than their northern counterparts”

The Great North South divide was brought to our attention again last year when the Joint Council for Qualifications showed that children living in the south east are around 40 per cent more likely to gain A’s in their GCSEs than those living in the north east of England.
So is it really true that the divide still exists in the 21st Century?

Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that students in the south and south east are more likely to be better educated than students in the north and other parts of the country? 
Here at www.11plusDIY.co.uk, we are perfectly placed to answer this question.  As part of the website www.11plusDIY.co.uk we maintain nationwide performance figures for students who are revising for the grammar school ‘11 Plus’ or similar school entrance exams. 


Methodology
To prove (or disprove) whether children in London or the South East score higher than their northern counterparts, we have taken a sample of over 500,000 questions answered by 11PLUSDIY students nationwide in the last three months (September – December 2010) and analysed the results on a school by school, local and regional basis.   


11 Plus Students – Regionally
The findings of our study show that students from London and the South East do on average score the highest countrywide percentage of correct marks on www.11PLUSDIY.co.uk tests – See Table 1.


Table 1 - Regional Average - Percentage of Correct Question answers  

Region	Avg % *
London	77.23%
South East	77.00%
West Midlands	76.19%
East Midlands	74.04%
North	73.15%
North West	72.84%
East	69.03%

According to figures we have collected and analysed, students from London correctly answer 77.23% of the questions they are asked (on www.11plusdiy.co.uk).  Students from the South East come second answering 77.00% of their questions correctly. As students move away from London and the South East, their scores reduce by up to 7-8%, which is consistent with the findings of the 2004 and 2010 studies.


Sub-Regions
If we look further into our results, we can see that the results are not as straight-forward, in that there are boroughs in London which do not perform as well as others; and likewise there are sub-regions outside London which performed very well on our analysis – See Table 2.


Most noticeably Birmingham, the West Midlands and Trafford score very well in our anlaysis, but even so not as well as the better performing South East suburbs. From our analysis the top five performing sub-regions/boroughs are in the South East, and particularly noticeable is Kingston who were the only sub-region to average over 80 per cent correct answers in the www.11plusdiy.co.uk tests that were completed.

Table 2 – Sub-Regional Average - Percentage of Correct Question answers

Sub Region	Avg % *
Kingston	81.87%
Redbridge	79.51%
Kent	79.38%
Enfield	79.27%
Slough	78.91%
Barnet	76.86%
Birmingham	76.74%
Walsall	76.09%
Sutton (Birm)	75.66%
Berkshire	74.68%
Wolverhampton	74.52%
Trafford	74.40%
Warwickshire	74.04%
Halifax	73.15%
Colchester	72.58%
Buckinghamshire	72.44%
Chelmsford	71.95%
Wirral	71.15%
Bromley	70.60%
Sutton (L)	69.37%
Surrey	67.57%
Southend	63.97%

* Table 2 shows only the sub-regions/boroughs that have completed what we believe to be a statistically relevant sample.

Conclusion

From our sample of approximately 500,000 questions, we conclude that students in London and the South East do perform on average better than students from elsewhere in the country on www.11plusdiy.co.uk tests.

We are going to be keeping an eye on these trends throughout 2011, so come back and see if our conclusions change over time.

Please also keep an eye out for the following blogs in the coming weeks:

·         11PLUSDIY – Performance Reporting 2 - The Great Sex Divide

·         11PLUSDIY – Performance Reporting 3 – The Great Practice Divide

·         11PLUSDIY – Performance Reporting 4 – The Great School Divide