Part of Oldham has been found to be one of the top places for educational attainment, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In new data released this week, the ONS has looked at the educational outcomes of students who sat their GCSEs in English states schools in the 2012 to 2013 school year, now that they are adults.

The ONS looked at the cohort of students who sat their GCSEs in the 2012 to 2013 school year as “they are the most recent pupils for whom data exists on their progress after school, up to age 22 years”.

The list is divided into categories the ONS has labelled “small towns”, “medium towns”, “large towns” and “cities”.

This is based on size rather than traditional classification – for instance, Cambridge, Oxford and St Albans are included in the “large towns” category, even though they are cities.

Uppermill was 27th out of 662 small towns for educational attainment. When including the other categories, Uppermill was 34th out of 1,100 areas.

However, Oldham town proper was the second-worst in Greater Manchester, according to the analysis.

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An ‘education score’ is calculated using data such as the proportion of pupils achieving 5 GCSEs or more with grades A* to C, the proportion achieving a Level 3 qualification by age 18, and the average of the highest level of qualification achieved by the time the pupils reached by the time they were age 22.

A score of 0 was the average score of all areas, while negative scores reflected poorer than average performance and positive scores reflected better than average attainment.

Uppermill was given an ‘education score’ of 7.6 in the analysis, third to Hale in Trafford and Cheadle Hulme in the Greater Manchester region.

Lees was the next best Oldham area, with an ‘education score’ of 3.0, followed by Royton at 2.9 and Shaw at 2.8.

Chadderton was also above average, with a score of 0.7.

Two areas of the borough had below-average education scores: Failsworth at -0.7 and Oldham at -4.1.

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Oldham had the second worst education score in Greater Manchester, just ahead of Partington, in Trafford, at -4.8. Oldham came at position 967 out of 1,100 across England.

The ONS analysis, which uses Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data collected by the Department for Education (DfE), concluded that small towns had an average score of 0.4 and large towns had an average score of -0.9.

While smaller towns had a better average score, they also saw the widest range in scores, the research found.

Thurnscoe in South Yorkshire had a score of -10, while Chorleywood in Hertfordshire had a score of 9.4.

Among the top 10 per cent of towns in England with the highest educational attainment scores, none had high levels of income deprivation, the ONS said.

First time analysis has taken place

Richard Prothero, the lead statistician for the ONS analysis, said: “It’s the first time ONS has looked at young people’s educational attainment by the size of towns in which they went to school.

“Those in smaller towns generally did better than those in larger towns, while those in cities, other than London and Brighton and Hove, typically had lower attainment than those in towns.

“One reason for this may be the link between levels of deprivation and educational attainment as there tends to be more deprivation in larger towns and cities than in small towns.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “This analysis demonstrates how closely aligned educational outcomes are to levels of deprivation.

“Raising attainment is therefore dependent not only on ensuring that schools in areas of high deprivation are well supported and resourced, but also on wider efforts to tackle poverty and improve local economies.”

Government responds

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are determined to improve the quality of education for all children wherever they live, and we have driven up standards for pupils since the cohort in this study sat their GCSEs in the 2012/13 academic school year.

“We have identified 55 Education Investment Areas with the weakest educational outcomes where we are making additional investment to boost improvements, including £86 million to support academy trusts to develop their capacity to take on underperforming schools.

“We also support the most disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils through pupil premium funding, which is increasing to more than £2.9 billion in 2023/24 – the highest cash terms rate since this funding began.”