This is the first report in the Bow Group's INvisible Nation series

The following is the introduction to the report entitled Invisible Children written by Charlotte Leslie, Chris Skidmore and Nick Cuff and published by the Bow Group. You can download Invisible Children and to read it in full.

It is ten years since Tony Blair made education his priority in government. An entire generation of pupils have passed through school under Labour’s watch. Pupils who were in the first year of primary school in May 1997 finished their GCSEs last summer. Has every child mattered? In the first of the Bow Group’s ‘Invisible Nation’ series, this report looks at how the Blair generation fared.

We look at more closely at the standard 5A*-C measure of achievement, and look at how much those qualifications will be worth to pupils.

Then we look at those who don’t get those crucial five good GCSEs. And we look at those who don’t get 5 GCSEs of any grade at all.

But that is not the whole story.

This report shines a light on the invisible children. Children who didn’t even get a chance to fail their GCSEs because they never even got to take the exam. Then this report asks what we can do about it. Factors behind social disengagement are complex but we conclude that central tracking of pupils, individualised learning and a real skills agenda are key to improving the situation we find here.

This report reveals what became of the 656,000 pupils who were 7 in 1997 and who took their GCSEs in 2006 *:

The invisible Children:

• 7,000 pupils are missing from education in their final year
• 30,000 pupils were either missing or not entered for GCSEs
• Nearly 60,000 pupils did not obtain any GCSEs, either through not turning up to their GCSE exams, not passing any exams, not being entered for GCSE exams, or disappearing off the school roll.

Undetected Underachievment:

• 20,000 pupils who sat GCSEs did not sit maths GCSE, 26,000 did not sit English GCSE and 45,000 did not sit science GCSE
• Last year, 29,800 pupils who sat GCSEs did not gain any qualifications – a rise of 6,600 pupils from 2005.
• Over a quarter (27%) of boys do not gain a single GCSE above a C grade – along with a total of 130,000 pupils

The Divide of Deprivation:

• In 695 wards across the country – mostly in inner-city areas of deprivation – the percentage of pupils gaining five GCSEs of any grade has actually fallen backwards
• Pupils taking Free School Meals and pupils with Special Educational Needs are most likely to be the victims of disengagement and educational failure: 41% of persistent truants have SEN, as do 64% of excluded pupils.
• The educational attainment gap between rich and poor is widening, particularly in urban towns

* This study solely covers GCSE entries. Reflecting the fact that the core qualifications must be obtained through this award.