Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: "Children and young people from the poorest families were hit hardest by the impact of Covid. As this report shows, disruption caused by the pandemic has stripped away the hard-won progress of the last decade by returning attainment gaps to 2012 levels.

"Last year the government refused to fully fund a recovery package which could have helped disadvantaged children to catch up. With families now facing a cost-of-living crisis this winter that will once again disproportionately affect the poorest, the government cannot continue to sit back and abandon vulnerable children. They must find more money for education, children and young people in this Autumn Statement.”