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On 21 November 2007, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) published 8 reports on the impact of poverty on young children’s experience of school, which examine the experiences and attitudes of children from different backgrounds. The research finds that children in poverty face greatly reduced educational prospects and future life chances. Children are aware of such outcomes from an early age and that their own stereotyping reinforces these differences.
Social background influences the way children feel about school from an early age. At primary school, children in poverty are more likely to have negative experiences and feel "got at" by teachers.
While children from all backgrounds see the advantages of school, deprived children are more likely to feel anxious and unconfident about school. Out-of-school activities can help build self-confidence by improving learning relationships, and children from advantaged backgrounds greatly benefit from the access they have to more structured and supervised activities beyond school.
Children from poorer families are less likely to have space in which to do their homework, or to get as much help from parents as children with higher socio-economic status. Poorer parents may be under greater pressure. They may also lack the confidence in their own abilities and have bad memories of school.
The research also found that many children and young people who become disaffected with school develop strong resentments about mistreatment (including perceptions of racial discrimination). Work with disaffected young people is most effective where it creates a new environment and new relationships, where children feel more involved in their own futures.
Only a quarter of students receiving free school meals gain five good GCSEs or equivalent, compared to over half the overall population in England. The gap between the outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those from advantaged backgrounds is wider in the UK than in most other similar countries.
The impact of poverty on young children’s experience of school