Children in northern England are falling behind their counterparts in the south because of a 'stark' educational divide, according to new figures.
The office of the children's commissioner for England says the proportion of 11-year-olds meeting the expected standard in inner London is 10 percentage points higher than those in Leeds or Liverpool
Five-year-olds in Manchester are 10 percentage points behind their counterparts in the south-east.
The figures are part of the Growing Up North project due to be published later this year by children’s commissioner Anne Longfield.
She commented: 'These figures are a stark reminder that there are hundreds of thousands of children growing up in the north who are falling behind children in the south – in many cases before they’ve even started their school lives.'
