A quarter of a million pupils change school each year, excluding compulsory moves (such as from primary to secondary school). Children from lower-income families are more likely to change school than children from high-income families. And when children do change school, those from higher-income families are more likely to move to better performing schools than those from low-income families.

A recent research study undertaken by the Centre for the Economics of Education and published in Fiscal Studies has found pupil mobility (i.e. the extent to which children switch schools) to be strongly linked with measures of social disadvantage, pupil's previous academic attainment, and school test score performance. Children from lower-income families are more likely to change schools than other pupils, and this is true for pupils at all levels of schooling. Pupils who move schools are more likely to have a lower previous academic achievement than pupils who stay at the same school, and pupils at schools with lower Key Stage performance levels move more than pupils from higher performance schools.

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