Raising the aspirations and achievement of young people and families

For quite a few years, Bristol's young people have struggled to achieve the kind of academic results that they would want. Research shows that this lack of achievement is partly due to the quality of education, but also due to the aspirations that they have. In turn, their aspirations are determined by their environment - where they live, who they live with, who they hang out with, their influences and exposure all define their attitude towards learning.

We want to give everyone the opportunity to achieve whatever it is they want to achieve - but we also want to help them have greater confidence in aspiring to achieve as much as they can.

This year's provisional academic results have shown continuing good improvement, with Bristol achieving 47.1% for GCSEs, including Maths and English (compared with 40.2% in 2009 and 23.3% in 2002).

The 4 strategic actions for Outcome 4 are the primary way we will work to deliver raising the aspirations and achievement of young people and families.  All other actions also contribute to

delivering the outcome.

Updated February 2011