In their own words: Children's experience of poverty in schools
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Version 0 of 1. What's distinctive about the Children's Commission on Poverty inquiry is that it is led by, and informed by children and young people. The aim, says its report, was to enable us to see the impact of poverty on school pupils from their perspective, to appreciate "what it looks and feels like". They succeed. The report itself, ultimately written by an expert (adult) Children's Society secretariat, is impressive. It is worth plucking out some of the voices of children that are interspersed throughout, taken from interviews commissioned by the inquiry. Here you get the authentic, raw, unvarnished accounts that show the frustration of feeling different from, and falling behind, your school peers because you are poor. School uniforms are a big deal. Although they are supposed to remove social and class differences, they won't do that if you can't afford a new one, as this interviewee testifies: Poverty means you often have to dress differently, and therefore you stand out: It means you don't even have basic items of clothing: Free school meals are fine but not much use if you are living in poverty and don't qualify for them because your parents are working. That's the case for an estimated 540,000 children in the UK. In those circumstances a school meal at lunchtime may not be a regular event: Even if you do get free school meals, your poverty status can be highlighted by the way you are required to purchase your meals in the canteen: Children can spot poverty a mile away: The cost of course materials and inability to access the internet at home is often a barrier not just to participation but to doing well academically: Some teachers don't understand that when the homework doesn't get done it it is poverty of access to technology and materials that is the cause, not personal laziness: School trips are a notorious identifier of family economic circumstances, although it won't be just kids in poverty who are excluded from excursions like this: But even more modest trips are beyond the scope of some family budgets: That's the added pain for less well off school children, not just that they are too poor to go on the trip, but they don't get to share in the communal memories: The children's commissioners were shocked and moved by what they found during the inquiry. Here's Fatimah, aged 12: Here's Gulwali, aged 19: Gulwali concludes teachers, schools and policy makers need to be more mindful of the impact of poverty: • You can read their recommendations here |