When Harry arrived at secondary school, he could neither read nor write. The previous two generations of his family were illiterate, too, so Harry had seen close up the limited opportunities this leads to. “Basically the aim for me is, like, to have a better life than my dad,” is how the boy from Feltham, West London, puts it.

In a new feature-length documentary film, H is For Harry, the educational struggles of this white working class boy from suburbia are laid bare. Shot over two years at Reach Feltham Academy, the film follows the efforts of his devoted English teacher, Sophie Boullin, to help him break the cycle of intergenerational illiteracy and poverty.

It offers an unusually intimate insight not only into the daily life of a contemporary classroom but also into a national problem that’s provoking increasing alarm: the underperformance of white working class boys in this country.

Last month, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission argued some are so far behind classmates they should receive special treatment, like traveller children and the disabled.

Official data shows white boys on free school meals are 13 points behind disadvantaged black pupils in key phonic literacy skills when they start school, and by 16 the average GCSE score for white boys on free school meals is just 29.5, compared to 40.5 for Asian disadvantaged boys, based on their marks across eight subjects.