I am Co-founder of Class Divide, a grassroots education campaign that since 2019 has worked to challenge the stark education divides in Brighton and Hove. I am also a senior education policy advisor at Impetus, a charity that works to improve outcomes for children from disadvantaged backgrounds in education and in life.

Children from low-income families and communities face significant challenges in education. They are less likely to leave school with important qualifications, are more likely to experience exclusion and are more likely to find the transition into work more difficult. Most policy responses to this issue focus on making up low-income children's perceived deficits through school-based interventions or providing additional funds to schools that teach large numbers of pupils eligible for pupil premium.

In the USA, however, the use of socioeconomic school integration policies over the past two decades has instead created schools with a broader socioeconomic mix, which has improved educational outcomes for children from low-income families. I will learn from the experience of implementing these policies to promote them here in England.