Creating Value In Schools
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The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) briefing Priced out of school highlights a connection between poverty and school attendance. Some young people are missing school because they don’t have the right uniform, kit, dinner money or train fare. Resources from Poverty Proofing© the School Day help us understand how being under-resourced can affect many different aspects of school life, including things which typically are deemed ‘fun’, like World Book Day or school trips.
We know that attendance is a major worry at the moment, with school attendance not returning to pre-pandemic levels. CPAG’s research with children and families demonstrates that: ‘not being able to afford uniforms, school supplies, trips and transport to school are key reasons why children are not attending their lessons’ (report page 1). What might start out as a day missed here and there can turn into persistent absence.
CPAG talked directly to young people aged 11-18. They found that:
CPAG’s research into the cost of sending children to school shows that families are paying almost £450 a year for basic secondary school uniform, bags and PE kit. The government is introducing a limit on the number of compulsory branded uniform items schools can require in an effort to address this challenge. (For more on this, see Changes to school uniform policy.) Poverty Proofing© has a downloadable Affordable School Uniform Guide which provides useful suggestions for uniform review.
Sadly, CPAG found that school trips can be another driver of low attendance.
This means young people can feel left out and left behind – as well as missing out on the chance to have new experiences, learn in different ways, and go to places or try things they wouldn't normally be able to access.
In the blog post The 'C' Word (Part 3), Sean Harris examines the role of trips in the curriculum, how things like gift shops can be a source of stress and division, and ways to manage trips in a more inclusive and accessible manner.
He also draws attention to World Book Day as a potential source of stress for families, with demands for costumes, and gives the example of a primary school which instead bought plain white t-shirts for all pupils, and children ‘were invited to design their own book-themed tops based on a text they had read, linking literacy and comprehension with artistic expression’.
Poverty Proofing© has a series of free resources to help heighten awareness and understanding around these issues. Their calendar of school events is particularly revealing, drawing attention to how events and activities in school can create problems for families who are struggling with resources.
