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The Telegraph reported on an inquiry into the English education system, conducted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It said that children from poor backgrounds struggle to learn to read and write because they lack quiet places in their home to do homework. They are often distracted by loud music, shouting and television, whereas children from affluent homes often have tv quotas monitored by parents and get more adult help. The study also found that children from poorer backgrounds felt anxious, lacked confidence and felt inferior. Children from wealthier homes had quiet bedrooms, were taken to many cultural and sporting activities and had parents who constantly stretched their imaginative and speaking skills.
(Telegraph, 7 September 2007)
The Financial Times covered a report released by the liberal think-tank, CentreForum. It suggested that schools should be given financial incentives to recruit children from the most deprived backgrounds. Tagged the ‘pupil premium’ and costing around £3000 per pupil, its aim would be to make children from poor homes more attractive to schools who might otherwise avoid them, rather than put their league tables at risk.
Other ideas in the report include compulsory weekend classes for the poorest and bonuses for top teachers in the most challenging schools. The pupil premium would also end the role of councils in distributing the deprivation fund- the report claims that local authorities were failing to do this accurately.
The report said that despite ten years of progressive improvements in average levels of pupil attainment since 1997, there remained an ‘intractable tail’ of pupils who consistently failed to meet minimum standards in literacy and numeracy.
(Financial Times, 17 July 2007)
The Daily Mail has reported on a study by the Sutton Trust which has said that despite huge mounts of funding the last ten years has seen little improvement in helping the poorest children. The Sutton Trust said the only way to improve social mobility was to return to academic selection and assisted places. They found that all the efforts to improve the education of the poor since the early 1980s had failed to help.
(Daily Mail, 26 June 2007)
The BBC reported that Alan Johnson announced that by 2011 an extra £1 billion to be spent on closing the achievement gap between the disadvantaged and the affluent. Mr Johnson said that some schools were regularly discriminating against poor children by placing them in lower sets. He highlighted that children who did not receive free school meals are twice as likely to get five good GCSEs as those who did.
(BBC, 17 May 2007)
Children from the poorest homes should start their
education at two to get the best out of schooling, the
children's minister Beverley Hughes has said. She told
the Commons Select Committee on Education that new research
would show they made more progress at primary school
the earlier they had started their pre-schooling. Ministers
have launched a pilot programme in disadvantaged areas,
offering pre-school activity to two-year-olds.
(Independent, 21 November 2006)
New 'choice advisers' will get more disadvantaged pupils
into schools, according to Sue Garner, head of the school
admissions and class size unit at the Department for
Education and Skills. Ms Garner said at a conference
that the intake at London Oratory, where three of Tony
Blair's children attended, would be changed by the introduction
of choice advisors, which all local authorities must
employ by 2008. Some areas are already trialling such
people.
The advisers will offer independent advice on school
admissions to low-income families and are an important
part of a government drive to close social gaps. Ms
Garner said an analysis had shown that the London Oratory's
intake fairly reflected the backgrounds of those who
applied for places but the school's reputation put people
off applying unless they were high achieving and middle
class. Ms Garner said: "Choice advisers would prevent
some parents thinking that this school is not for the
likes of us." However, local authority admissions officers
complained that the advisers were adding to bureaucracy
and might do little to help parents.
(TES, 13 October 2006)
Church schools are taking in far fewer pupils from
disadvantaged backgrounds than other schools and more
than their share of bright pupils, according to detailed
research on admissions published by the National Foundation
for Educational Research. The study, which covered all
primary and secondary schools in England, revealed that
voluntary-aided schools, mainly run by churches, were
taking in fewer children entitled to free meals than
other schools in their neighbourhoods. In addition,
church secondary schools admit far higher proportion
of children who have done well in their 11-year-old
national curriculum tests than the percentage in the
communities they serve.
(Independent, 18 September 2006)
Welsh primary schools with similar numbers of disadvantaged
pupils are still getting wildly varying results at key
stage two, according to data. However, denominational
and particularly small schools seem to be doing better
than might be expected, given free school meal entitlement.
Results for 11-year-olds in English/Welsh, maths and
science have been improving steadily over the past few
years. However, in 2006 the numbers achieving the standard
expected for their age (level four) went down in all
subjects except maths.
Individual school results since 2000 confirm the link
between deprivation and achievement, with schools with
high free school meal (FSM) entitlement generally doing
less well, however, the results varied hugely. For example,
among 64 schools with FSMs of 50% or more, the scores
for children achieving level 4 in all three subjects
(the core subject indicator, CSI) ranged from 27.8%
to 90.9%. In 61 schools where 5% or fewer pupils were
entitled to FSMs, the CSI ranged from 60% to 100%.
In 63 schools, half or fewer of the pupils were assessed
as achieving the CSI. Most had FSM levels of 30% or
more, but a handful were below the Welsh average of
19.7%. 86 schools scored a perfect 100% in the CSI,
with FSMs (where available) ranging from 3% to 39.5%.
Around a fifth of these were denominational schools,
and more than 60% had 100 pupils or fewer.
(TES Cymru, 15 September 2006)
In a speech setting out plans to help the socially
excluded, Tony Blair has said that home nurses will
spend as long as two years visiting parents of children
identified as at risk of offending in later life. The
prime minister also promised the Government would clamp
down on local authorities that failed to provide the
right help for children in care. Mr Blair said: "Where
it is clear at a young age that children are at risk
of being brought up in a dysfunctional home where there
are multiple problems.instead of waiting until the child
goes off the rails we should act early enough with the
right help and support and discipline framework for
the family to prevent it. It may be the only way to
save them and the wider community."
(Guardian, 6 September 2006)
Problem families that contribute to crime and antisocial
behaviour are to be the focus of a new government strategy
for tackling deprivation. The approach reflects a recognition
by the government that its campaign against poverty
has failed to reach some of the most vulnerable people.
Health, education, employment and local government budgets
will be aimed at the four groups deemed hardest to reach:
teenage mothers, children in care, people with mental
health problems and "complex and chaotic families".
The initiatives are aimed at identifying and helping
potentially disruptive families rather than punishing
them.
(Financial Times, 30 August 2006)
Shaks Ghosh, chief executive of Crisis discusses how
learning and skills help homeless people to take control
of their lives, access services and build skills. To
read this article in full visit education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1822420,00.html
(Guardian, July 18 2006)
A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has
said that at least an extra £4 billion a year will have
to be spent on benefits by Gordon Brown if the government
is to meet its ambitious goal of halving child poverty
by 2010.
In a stark warning that the government's anti-poverty
strategy is way off course, the JRF has concluded it
would take until 2020 for ministers to achieve their
missed interim target of cutting child poverty by a
quarter by 2005, assuming policies remain unchanged.
Eradicating child poverty by the end of the next decade
would prove even harder. If the government relied primarily
on redistribution through higher tax credits and benefits,
considered unlikely because of the political fall-out,
it would cost a further £28bn a year in current terms
by 2020.
The JRF study, using financial modelling by the Institute
for Fiscal Studies, is the first published attempt to
put a price tag on Tony Blair's pledge in 1999 to end
child poverty within a generation.
(Financial Times, July 6 2006)
A child poverty tsar is being appointed to reinvigorate
the government's efforts to reach one of its key targets.
Lisa Harker, former chair of childcare lobbyists the
Daycare Trust, is to act as an independent adviser amid
concerns that the goals of halving child poverty by
2010 and ending it by 2020 will be missed.
The government failed to reach an interim target of
cutting child poverty by a quarter by 2005. Ms Harker
has been call in ahead of a welfare reform bill, which
will announce details of a carrot-and-stick approach
to encourage parents to seek jobs. Part of her brief
will be looking at how to involve the voluntary and
private sectors in tackling child poverty.
(Guardian, 26 June 2006)
Bill Rammell insisted that the Government will stick
to its guns on skills training in colleges. The further
and higher education minister defended the focus on
boosting skills in colleges and said vocational training
would save thousands of teenagers from a future in low-paid
jobs.
Mr Rammell said: "We are focusing on skills and that,
frankly, is the best route out of poverty I know." However,
some principals claim that they will struggle to meet
the cost of even 'priority' areas, such as 16 to 19-year-old
provision.
The Train to Gain scheme, which encourages employers
to train their staff to level 2 (GCSE-equivalent), is
expected to bring extra business to most colleges. The
Government has increased funding for the sector overall
by nearly 50% since 1999 but colleges claim increased
demands have stretched these extra resources thin.
(TES, June 23 2006)
Educational achievement, particularly by young children,
is a huge factor in helping those from poor backgrounds
escape poverty in later life, says a Department for
Work and Pensions (DWP) report. The research, which
was carried out by the University of Surrey, also found
that the level of parental interest in their child's
education can affect their ability to escape from poverty.
Researcher, Jo Blanden, said the father's interest
has "a large influence on their sons" with the "mother's
interest most important for their daughters". Ms Blanden
added that those who buck the trend are more likely
to have parents with some qualifications, who read to
them as children and take an interest in their schooling.
Attending school with higher achieving or more advantaged
peers also seems to make a difference.
Paul Dornan, head of policy and research at the Child
Poverty Action Group, said: "This report shows education
and early intervention are absolutely vital in reducing
poverty. It also shows that failing to tackle poverty
in childhood risks leading to persistent poverty in
adulthood, meaning that today's poor child may become
tomorrow's poor parent.
The DWP has said that it will feed the findings of
the report into a "new strategy for how we can make
faster progress in reaching our goal of halving child
poverty by 2010". John Hutton, the work and pensions
secretary, announced that tackling child poverty would
be his department's 'number one prirority'
(Children Now, 24-30 May 2006)
The TES profiles Peter McFarlane, a headteacher in
Harlem, New York, with a doctorate in school transformation.
Known as 'Dr Mac' he has turned around a failing school,
which was impoverished and plagued by drugs and weapons.
(TES, 5 May 2006)
To read this article visit: www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2230842
Mainstream secondary schools are not inclusive
enough, according to a report commissioned by the Department
for Education and Skills. The report found there was
"a need for significant development" in the
mainstream secondary sector and urged ministers to take
action on the issue. It recommended: "The DfES
should strengthen its expectations of inclusive provision
in all secondary mainstream schools."
The report also said that ministers should do more
to ensure that mainstream special educational needs
resources bases for children with low incidence needs
"promote local inclusion".
The full report The National Audit of Support, Services
and Provision for Low Incidence Needs is available
from www.teachernet.gov.uk.
(Children Now, 4 April 2006)
Recognising and Recording Progress and Achievement in
Non-accredited Learning (RARPA) is being implemented
and embedded across LSC-funded provision as the 'New
Measure of Success' for non-accredited learning. As
RARPA now applies to all non-accredited learning it
should be included in future self-assessments and in
scoping for inspection.
RARPA is a useful learner-centred approach for assuring
the quality of learner's experience. Information about
how it can benefit your organisation can be found at
www.niace.org.uk/projects/RARPA
For further information contact Raksha Mistry on 0116
204 4237 or email raksha.mistry@niace.org.uk
Practitioners who work with young adults, aged 16 to
25 years old, to develop literacy, language and numeracy
skills are invited by the Young Adults Learning Partnership
(YALP) to join a new network.
The Youth Literacies Network will provide an opportunity
to hear from practitioners, take part in discussions,
review recent national findings and share expertise
and experiences to develop practice further. The network
will meet three times a year in locations across England
and be supported by an email group and e-bulletin.
For more information email: bethia.mcneil@niace.org.uk.
Schools in inner-city areas will be given £20
million a year to hire counsellors to work with unruly
pupils and their parents. Parent-support advisers would
work in 600 primary and secondary schools as part of
a two-year pilot scheme.
Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, said that the advisers
would help to tackle poor behaviour and arrange one-to-one
tuition for pupils who needed extra support. Social
workers would also be based in schools to help troubled
families as part of an experiment in up to ten local
authorities.
The programme would give one professional, based at
the school, powers to identify problems early and to
intervene quickly, "instead of the dozen agencies
that often duplicate each others' efforts without reaching
the troubled child". Ms Kelly said that £5
million a year would be spent on the pilots, starting
in 2006. If successful, the scheme could be extended
nationwide.
Mentoring programmes will be extended to cover an extra
300 children in care aged 10 to 15 years old, each year.
Peer mentoring schemes, in which pupils are trained
to tackle problems in their schools, will be set up
in 180 secondary schools.
(Times, 6 December 2005)
Poverty among childless adults of working age has grown
to record levels since Tony Blair came to power in 1997,
according to an independent analysis of Labour's performance
by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. London School of
Economics researchers found the government drive to
cut child poverty was on track to deliver the targets,
and the number of pensioners below the poverty line
had also fallen, and may drop further if there is a
good take-up of pension credits.
But working adults without children had been left behind
by Gordon Brown's tax and benefit reforms, said the
study by John Hills and Kitty Stewart. Although many
people had gained from rising living standards and falling
unemployment, large numbers depended on benefits whose
value had been frozen. The proportion of households
below three-fifths of national average earnings - the
official poverty line - rose from 12% to 13% from 1997
to 2003, higher than under Margaret Thatcher and John
Major.
The report found that tax and benefit changes have
put the Government on course to cut the number of children
brought up in poverty by 25% between 1998-99 and 2004-05.
Spending patterns showed low-income families with children
were now spending more on children's clothes, footwear,
games and toys, but no more on alcohol or tobacco. But
relative child poverty levels in the UK were above the
EU average.
(Guardian, 12 January 2005)
Many of the people with the greatest and most complex
needs have benefited least from Labour's drive to tackle
deprivation, research by the government's social exclusion
unit has found. Unskilled or unqualified adults, people
with chronic illnesses or disabilities, and some ethnic
minority groups, including Pakistanis and Bangladeshis,
have been identified as those helped relatively little
by measures to promote social inclusion.
Of 58 indicators in the report, 35 have improved, 11
have remained constant, nine are unclear because of
insufficient data, and three have deteriorated. Of these
three, two are new indicators - childhood obesity and
families in temporary accommodation - and the third
is the unemployment level for low-qualified adults.
Simultaneously, the unit published a series of reports
called Breaking the Cycle, which it described as the
most comprehensive, in-depth analysis of social exclusion
it had undertaken in the seven years of Labour government.
While there had been much progress, the unit said, the
scale of the problem remained large.
The unit will now focus on how public services could
be delivered in a more integrated way and make maximum
use of technology such as text messaging and data collection
through swipe cards to try to reach those groups that
have been missing out. In addition to the groups identified
by the research, the unit will concentrate on young
adults facing problems such as drug dependency, homelessness
and unemployment; vulnerable and isolated pensioners;
and people who tend to move home frequently, such as
Gypsies and Travellers and those leaving the armed forces
or institutional care.
(Guardian, 14 September 2004)
The gender gap in GCSE performance is widening in England's
poorest areas but boys living in more affluent areas are
beginning to catch up with the girls in their class, official
figures reveal. The difference between the proportions
of girls and boys gaining five or more good GCSEs has
doubled since 1997 in the country's most deprived wards.
By contrast, the proportion of boys reaching this benchmark
in the richest 10% of wards has risen slightly faster
than that of girls since Labour came to power. Public
concern about the underperformance of boys has risen since
the early 1990s as girls outstripped their male classmates.
Labour came to power promising to boost boys' results
but although the proportion getting five Cs or better
has increased from 38% in 1996 to 46% in 2003, the gender
gap has remained steady at 10 points. The figures are
revealed by David Miliband, schools standards minister,
in a parliamentary answer to Phil Willis, Liberal Democrat
education spokesman. Both boys and girls in deprived
areas get much lower grades than their more advantaged
peers. But while girls in poor areas are improving faster
than those in affluent areas, the gap between rich and
poor boys has remained constant.
Dr Deborah Wilson, Bristol University expert on the
gender gap in schools, said that the differences are
likely to be a result of factors outside school. "The
effect of poverty on exam results is greater than the
effect of gender," she said. "If we focus
more on the reasons for poverty affecting performance
we might get better results for both boys and girls."
(TES, 13 August 2004)
A drive to put social justice at the heart of Labour's
mission has been launched. The new report implicitly
accepts that the Government has in many respects been
unable to address deep-rooted inequalities and meet
the ambitious goals in the original report. It was published
during John Smith's leadership and embraced by Tony
Blair. It reads: "Levels of child poverty surpass
those of our European partners. Inequalities in income
wealth and wellbeing remain stubbornly high. Parental
social class and ethnic background still heavily effect
life chances." The report points out the percentage
of wealth held by the wealthiest 10% of the population
has increased from 47% to 54% in 10 years. It praises
the Government for tackling absolute poverty, but complains:
"The Government appears to lack a vision of social
justice that it feels comfortable publicly articulating
and consistently pursuing."
The report is being written at the Institute of Public
Policy Research, the thinktank that oversaw the previous
report.
(Guardian, 30 July 2004)
Hard to reach groups are failing to benefit from the
government's progress in tackling disadvantage, the
Social Exclusion Unit said in a discussion paper published
in March 2004. The paper, Tackling social exclusion:
taking stock and looking to the future, examines
the impact of government policies to reduce inequality
since the unit was established in 1997.
The paper shows that the government has halted and
even begun to to reverse some deep-rooted trends in
social exclusion. This includes reducing by half a million
the number of children in low income households. But
the most vulnerable groups, including some ethnic minority
communities, have not benefited.
Launching the paper, regeneration minister Yvette Cooper
hailed the government's attempt to change "the
long history of disillusionment and fatalism" about
poverty in the UK. But she agreed that some groups were
being "left behind" and insisted it was not
time to cut the Social Exclusion Unit's budget.
The paper suggests social exclusion policies should
recognise that some groups are harder to reach and the
last to benefit. It calls for more flexible approaches
that are tailored to individuals, which work well for
the most vulnerable groups.
The attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged
pupils widens dramatically between the ages of seven
and 14, Government statistics reveal. Pupils claiming
free school meals, used as an indication of disadvantage,
perform less well on average than other pupils in all
subjects at all levels. But the gap between children
on free meals and their more privileged classmates doubles
by the time they are choosing their GCSEs.
Professor David Jesson, of the probability and statistics
department at the University of Sheffield, said: "It
is a substantial gap at 14. It is a surprise because
the Government's programme has sought to close the gap
between disadvantaged and advantaged communities."
At age seven, 80% of pupils on free meals achieved
the expected level in maths in 2003 compared to 93%
of pupils who do not claim free school meals. By age
14 the gap has more than doubled. In 2003, 46% of pupils
on free meals achieved level 5 compared to 75% of other
pupils. Last year, fewer than one in four children on
free school meals got five or more good GCSEs, compared
to more than half of other pupils.
The Government's Excellence in Cities programme, covering
1,000 secondary and primary schools, pours extra resources
into urban areas. It was extended in December 2003 to
cover all primaries with more than 35% of pupils on
free meals.
(TES, 27 February 2004)
The full price paid by children for the breakdown of
the family is spelled out in a report by Civitas, a
civic affairs think-tank.
Its analysis showed that children who grow up without
fathers suffer throughout their lives. They face a higher
chance of death as babies, and in adulthood they are
more likely to be unemployed, homeless or imprisoned.
Such children are also more at risk of poverty, poor
health, unhappiness and poor performance at school,
sexual or physical abuse, running away from home, heavy
drinking and smoking, drug taking, falling into crime,
early sex, sexually transmitted infections and teenage
parenthood.
The report, which gathers together research findings
on all aspects of children's lives to try to detect
the overall effect of family breakdown, also found that
the problem of children without fathers affects everybody
around them. It is said that the collapse of the two-parent
married family is partly to blame for increasing crime
and violence, for the erosion of community spirit and
for growing welfare dependency.
According to the analysis, children without fathers
are twice as likely as others to be in low-income homes
and two to three times more likely to show as unhappy
in tests than children with both parents.
One in five children now lives in one-parent families
and the rise in cohabitation means that another one
in 14 now live with their mother and a man who has no
birth or legal tie to the child.
Civitas director David Green said: "When the rule that
parents must care for their own children has been found
to be supported by all the best academic research, it
becomes irrational for the Government to pretend that
family structure is no business of policy makers, and
that all family structures are equally to be applauded
and supported.
"We need a change in policy that encourages responsible
behaviour among parents."
(Daily Mail, 16 September 2002)
Poverty
seems to be the hardest word Article by Peter Wilby
on how a whole array of initiatives have not overcome
the problem for schools with a very socially deprived
intake (TES, 30 May 2003)
The concept of social exclusion in society is misleading
with no sign of a British underclass permanently cut-off
from mainstream society, according to a book published
in June 2002. Understanding Social Exclusion,
edited by three London School of Economics professors,
suggests that while the term social exclusion is useful
in some ways and has changed the emphasis of Government
policy responses, such as the creation of the Social
Exclusion Unit, it is wrong to suggest that poor people
will necessarily be separated from the rest of society
on other counts as well.
Professors from the school's social exclusion centre
examined what the term means, the extent and nature
of the issues encompassed by it and how its definition
can affect government policy. Co-editor John Hills said
that it is important not to just focus on how much people
earn, but to consider other dimensions when discussing
exclusion. He said: "We must also look at people's participation
in society, from their political activity to their social
engagement and whether they make an active and positive
contribution to that community." He added that while
different dimensions of social exclusion are linked
to others - for example, the more politically active
a person is, the more likely they are to be engaged
in the community - the correlation is not that strong.
He said: "It is clear that each dimension is distinct
rather than simply reflections of the same thing. This
means that although there is a correlation between dimensions,
the term social exclusion draws attention to the fact
that people's circumstances change. The links are therefore
strong but not unbreakable."
(Regeneration and Renewal, 14 June 2002)
Research from the Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU)
shows the scale of the social and economic task if we
are to achieve a more prosperous, cohesive and equal
country.
Absolute social mobility - the chance of someone or
their children moving up the class ladder - has
steadily increased over the past century. But relative
social mobility - the life chances of poor children
compared with wealthier counterparts - has proved to
be very hard to shift.
The PIU research shoes that a man from social class
1 is 32 times more likely to stay in that class, and
avoid a fall to social class 7, than a man from social
class 7 is to reach class 1 rather than stay in class
7.
Education cannot bear the whole weight of this failure,
but it plays a role. It is one of the most direct levers
to achieve improvement. But research in the United States,
devoted to racial rather than class division and so
indicative rather than definitive, suggests the intervention
required is immense. Per pupil expenditure on black
children would need to outstrip that on their white
counterparts 10-fold to overcome social disadvantages
and equalise lifetime wages.
(David Miliband, Labour MP for South Shields writing
in the TES, 19 April 2002)
The first investigation into what living in London
is like for children has concluded that it is a "capital
divided", with almost half of its youngsters excluded
from the benefit of one of the greatest cities in the
world. 43% of London's 1.65 million children live in
poverty, a higher proportion than any other part of
the country, says The State of London's Children Report,
the first from the Office of Children's Rights Commissioner
(OCRC) for London, was published in October 2001
Poverty is the chief cause of ill health, accidents
and deaths in infancy suffered by London's children.
School exclusions are higher, and academic performance
is lower in the capital, and housing is more overcrowded
and child abuse more common.
The OCRC was set up two years ago by the Children's
Rights Alliance for England, representing 200 voluntary
organisations, to bring pressure on the Government for
a children's rights commissioner to protect their interests.
(Independent, 30 October 2001)
The Scottish Education Minister, Jack McConnell, has
issued a strong call to "close the gap" between the
haves and the have nots, when addressing a social inclusion
conference in Glasgow.
The key implications are:
- Progress of the national educational priorities
will be measured by focusing on "closing the gap".
- The Executive's spending programmes will target
resources behind this aim.
- Curriculum, discipline and parental involvement
plans will be brought into play.
(TESS, 26 October 2001)
Proposals for a second term being drawn up by ministers
include a plan to break the cycle of poverty and deprivation
by ensuring that poor people build up savings. Every
child in the country might benefit from the proposed
"individual development loan", under which the state
could pay about £1,000 into a saving scheme for
every child at birth at a cost of £7 million a
year.
(Independent, 2 January 2001)
More than two million children in Britain are deprived
of two or more of the "necessities of life" because
their parents cannot afford them, according to Poverty
and Social Exclusion in Britain, published by the
Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The report describes itself
as "the most comprehensive and scientifically rigorous"
survey of this type ever undertaken. It is based on
surveys carried out at the end of 1999.
Poverty and Social Exclusion in Britain, published
by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Copies available
for £15.95 plus £2 p&p. Tel: 01904 430033.
A free summary is available at www.jrf.org.uk
(TES, 15 September 2000)
Rich and poor schools are drifting further apart according
to a report published in mid May 2000. Schools in deprived
parts of the country are up to £500,000 worse
off than those in well-to-do areas because they are
unable to compete in fundraising stakes, says the report
produced by the research charity Directory for Social
Change.
80% of state primaries held fundraising events to buy
books. While one in five schools generated less than
£1000 a year in donations, 1% got over £25,000.
5% of secondaries got less than £1000 per year
while 3% received more than £250,000 in donations.
The report described parental donations as "a hidden
fault line" that is widening into "inequality of opportunity"
for children.
The report also warns that the pursuit of cash is putting
undue pressure on teachers and diverting them from teaching.
An "emerging bidding culture" is also a time-consuming
burden on headteachers chasing additional government
money which is only open to a fixed number of schools.
(TES & Daily Mail, 12 May 2000)
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