Home Ownership, Poverty and Educational Achievement: Individual School and Neighbourhood Effects

Glen Bramley and Noah Kofi Karley, Centre for Research into Socially Inclusive Services, 2005

Research in Scotland has confirmed that children may learn better in a school with a good social mix, with youngsters from different backgrounds able to inspire each other to perform better.

The study, carried out at Heriot-Watt University for the Scottish executive, examines data for areas of both England and Scotland, exploring the links between home ownership and educational achievement.

While the majority of the children of homeowners may do well at school, findings indicate that in a school with a good social mix all children tend to achieve better results. Primary school age children in particular benefit from attending a school with pupils with a wide mix of social backgrounds.

The report supports right-to-buy legislation in the belief that more owner-occupiers could favourably influence their local neighbourhoods and schools.

It states: “More mixing of tenures, with non-owner-occupiers in previously poor areas, should influence neighbourhood peer group values/behaviour within school ethos so that attainment is improved for owner occupiers’ children and other children.”

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