Last month Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said that “the lack of progress for children from white working-class backgrounds is particularly concerning”, and promised to tackle it in the forthcoming white paper. But Jerrim said that changing the group’s attitudes would be a “long-term slog”, and added: “This is a hard nut to crack. It’s likely to involve a lot of investment from an early age, following through these young people’s lives. A big message we all need to take away is that this isn’t going to change quickly” The study also found that pupil engagement with school declined over time across most groups, and Jerrim noted that black pupils had particularly poor relationships with their teachers compared with other groups.