CHILDREN from the most vulnerable backgrounds are lagging behind at Oxfordshire pre-schools.

Figures from the Department for Education show a big gap between children from non-white backgrounds, those who don’t speak English as a first language, children with special needs and those eligible for free school meals compared to other pupils.

While the statistics indicate that a higher percentage of children from almost all groups have reached “a good level of development” by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage this year compared to 2009-2010, there was a big difference in performance across different groups.

There was a gap of 26 percentage points this year between pupils eligible for free school meals achieving the target and those who were not, with just 40 per cent of those on free school meals reaching the benchmark, an increase of two percentage points from the previous year.

While the proportion of black and Asian children achieving the standard rose considerably, a rise of seven and 12 percentage points respectively, the figures showed a far higher percentage of the white five-year-olds were getting the expected level – 65 per cent of white children, 60 per cent mixed race, 54 per cent of Asian children, 48 per cent of black youngsters and 59 per cent of Chinese reached a “good level of development”.

Oxfordshire County Council schools improvement cabinet member Melinda Tilley said: “It is very worrying, and it is clear that Oxfordshire is not working.

“The children’s centres are doing a lot of good work and really are stepping up to the plate which is one of the reasons why our early years results are better.

“It is not an easy problem and it will take a lot of hard work.”

She said a key problem was that many of the children in vulnerable groups did not speak English at home, so had no opportunity to practise.

She added: “Nothing is more excluding than not speaking the language.

“Adults in the workplace and at home need to learn to speak proper English and then they will speak it hopefully to their children. At the moment, the children in some cases are teaching it to them.

“If I could give free English classes to everybody who comes over here, I would, but I can't.”

Just 14 per cent of children with special needs were deemed to reach the expected level, compared to 67 per cent with no special needs.

The previous year, 12 per cent of children with special needs made the grade, compared to 62 per cent of other children, meaning the gap has widened significantly.

Education expert Prof John Howson said: “The good news is that for children whose first language isn’t English there’s been a significant improvement, from 45 per cent to 52 per cent, and that’s a faster rise than the national average.

“But the bad news is that by the time you start the early years, if you have been diagnosed with special needs, it’s pretty catastrophic.

“Children come in with a wide range of skills but these figures show those least likely by themselves to have the power to do well are performing less well than if they were living elsewhere.”