MILLIONS of pounds are needed to close the “unacceptable” education gap between rich and poor in Bournemouth, it has been claimed.

Just 37 per cent of children entitled to free school meals achieved five GCSEs at grade C or above compared with 71 per cent of their better-off classmates. The national figures are 26 per cent and 54 per cent.

The figures were released by Save the Children, which is calling for a £3,000 pupil premium for the least well-off, to support one-to-one or catch-up tuition, extra teachers or more holiday study programmes.

The charity says such a premium would being an extra £8 million to Bournemouth schools and “help close the unacceptable education gap between rich and poor”, according to policy head Sally Copley.

“It’s simply wrong that at every stage of schooling, the poorest children in Bournemouth do worse and make less progress than their better-off classmates,” she said.

“Having such an attainment gap is simply unacceptable in 2010. “Children from the poorest homes must be given high-quality additional support to ensure they can achieve their potential – to provide this, head teachers need substantially more money.”

Di Mitchell, service director for Children’s Learning and Engagement at Bournemouth council, said: “We welcome any additional funding for schools that will help tackle under-performance by any group of pupils, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

She said closing the gap is a priority for the council and added: “Over the last several years we have been working within our schools to focus on those students who receive free school meals, as well as other vulnerable groups.

“We are also looking at implementing a number of intervention methods such as one-to-one tuition and Gifted and Talented programmes.”