The Department told us that, compared to other countries, England performs relatively well in terms of disadvantaged children’s attainment.13 The OECD recently cited the UK as one of 10 highly equitable countries, meaning that the difference in maths, science and reading results that could be explained by socioeconomic status was lower than the OECD average.14 It also found that the UK had above average proportions of “academically resilient” pupils, who were among the best academic performers but in the bottom quartile for socioeconomic background.15 The Department stressed that, while recognising this success, it must not become complacent. It described aiming to close the significant gap between children of different backgrounds and continuing to aspire for high standards for every child, although this was ambitious, and no other country had achieved this aim.16