As around 17,600 Isle of Wight children return to school, Buttle UK has published the results of their national survey of 1,200 child support workers – ‘Experiences of Education for Children and Young People in Poverty in the UK in 2019′.
Buttle UK is a national charity dedicated to helping children and young people in crisis reach their potential by providing small but targeted and effective intervention.
The study highlights the effects on education of a range of issues such as: living without the basic essentials, not having a suitable bed; being unable to afford uniform or after school clubs and the impact of not having internet access or clean clothes.
Peter Shreeve, Assistant District Secretary of the National Education Union said:
“It paints a worrying picture of the education system as an unequal playing field. Children of less well-off families face multiple issues in fully accessing the state education that is available to them, and are being further disadvantaged at the very start of life.
“In the summer I visited Downside Community Centre based in one of the most disadvantaged areas on the Isle of Wight and spoke with Rachel. Here 42% of local children live in poverty, compared with an England average of 20% according to a June 2017 Community Insight Profile. (3) The Island average is 34.3% according to End Child Poverty’s May 2019 figures”.
Pan Together’s trustees recently secured a 3-year grant from the National Lottery’s Community Fund to support the local area. The centre is based in the same ‘block’ as Barton Primary School and the East Newport Family Centre.
Community Centre Manager, Rachel Thomson sums up the local situation:
“On the estate compared to England as a whole 34% of people have no qualifications compared with 22%. In addition, 33.9% of all families with dependent children are lone parent families compared to 24.5% nationally.
“We are a key part of local support and education is part of that. As such we work closely with the Family Centre next door, which is run by Barnardo’s, the Island Learning Centre which supports young people on the autistic spectrum as well as other community groups such as the Youth Offending Team and the local Police.”
The Survey indicated what frontline workers regularly (i.e. every week) saw:
– 79% seeing parents who are struggling to afford the costs associated with school.
– 67% seeing children unable to access after school clubs due to cost, thereby limiting opportunity to learn beyond core academic subjects, or develop their social skills.
– 88% seeing children having to be fed either breakfast or dinner at school.
– 61% seeing families struggling with internet access. This means that children are unable to complete internet-based homework, and parents are unable to communicate with schools or access support that can help with children’s education.
Peter continues:
“Whilst visiting the centre during the summer holiday, I saw a range of younger pupils accessing the internet for learning and socialising with their peers in a supportive and protective environment.
“The issues outlined in the Report are worsened by the reduction in support available to children and young people in poverty, which prevents them from having equal access to education. So many people and organisations are working hard to increase the support it provides, but this report again shows the scale of the task facing us all in this area of work.”
What a load of bull contract phones, sky dishes ect if cut all that out they would be able to afford things that they actually need! Also pay less rent cause in council which is probably paid for by the council!
That old chestnut, although it may be true for a minority, walk in the shoes of the majority and then speak,. It’s a nasty old world, what happened to empathy and caring.. instead of kneejerk bitter antagonism..
Talk about no compassion Guessing you have never had to make hard choices Food or internet Maybe you should live on benefits then comment I know ppl who too get there kids what they need i.e school uniform tge basics that alot of people take for granted Maybe one day ur have a little empathy for people less fortunate than other’s There our nxt generation Lets hope your nxt generation dont struggle How disapointed you would be ☹
shut it up if you have no idea what it is like. I worked from age 16 only been on one holiday in my entire life and worked full time 7 days a week as a pharmacist and shop assistant but then became disabled once I had my 4 children. I suffer from a condition that does not allow me to work as I am in great difficulties with moving around but I still do 16 hours to get by. I do not have a mobile, sky, or even a tv license. I was earning above £65k and my husband earned around £35k so we were never entitled to any child tax credits. I have gone part time from July 2017 therefore I have fallen into the 2 child tax credit limits although I had my children before April 2017. There are many people out there who have worked all their lives and still not able to get by like me. Either a partner has died or a job loss or a disability etc. unless u go through it like my friend who use to laugh at people in poverty and now her husband has lost his high paid job u will not understand what life can show you. please do dot put people down they did not choose to be in poverty.
Well said Emily dont sound like you have it easy either My son has specail needs and his dad works full time We dont have extra money just enough so the rent and council tax are paid Lets hope people with such stuck up opoins dont fall on hard times Kids need loving and neutering not money thrown at them to get some peace
People in distress or who are feeling hopeless do not always make good budgeting choices.
Also it takes a while to see changes, hopefully people can be supported while making any necessary change. Life can be harsh.
Just lazy most of the parents, the kids are just 3rd generation scroungers, pan is and always will be a hotbed for the scum of the capital.
The English language is full of very descriptive words. The one that springs to mind is “feckless” rather than “not making good budgetary choices”
Phone or fags, beer or weed, car or insurance… life really is tough for some.
The “feckless” poor smoking spliff is a charicature that is promoted by some and is of course true in some instances, but more often than not untrue.. like the charicature of old people on iow; bitter right wing church goers who are the complete opposite of the Christian spirit, yet masquerades as pious and holier than thou.. and loves to throw the mud, their natural habitat being the comments section, not always true, yet sometimes true..
There are some very harsh replies here. I attended Barton School in 1958 – 1961 when the country school I attended closed. I was one of three children living in the countryside with my parents and a grandfather in a small two up – two down tied cottage, still cooking on a kitchen range with the toilet down the garden and a cold filled bath out in the shed. Oh, and no television, washing machine, telephone or car. It wasn’t until I went to tea invites with friends on the estate that I realized that we actually had far less than my friends did. I slept in my own bed but in the same bedroom as my parents and a brother up until I was sixteen. My dear mother did the bulk of the washing in the shed heating the water up in a copper with a fire lit underneath. Us children worked the mangle. Did we think we were deprived? No. We couldn’t afford many books, but we had parents who took us to the library in Newport where we loved to choose two books only and we would read each others if we finished ours before they were due to be returned. We didn’t have holidays and had to walk into Newport for shopping, catching the bus home. We went on many long walks together.
From an early age, I knew that I didn’t wish to be stood on a Monday at a marble stand hand washing clothes for the family, so, so cold in the winter. What could I do? I had a wonderful teacher in my last two years at Barton. Miss Jefferies, I was quite good at reading and she encouraged all the class to read, even buying horsey fiction books from her own money. My parents couldn’t afford for me to go horse riding but I could dream through her books, we had a good library in our class. I honestly think that all children should be so encouraged to read and write daily from their teachers and if possible their parents in order for them to have the same choices as everyone in their class as they go through this school and the next. Maybe reading/writing classes for the parents too. Computer homework should be available to all children, in extra lesson time if there is no computer at home. No child should be discriminated against because of their background. Every school has money to provide for all children to go on a trip.
We read of inner city schools that with a few adjustments children come into school wanting to learn, wishing to find their self-worth and getting the results to further their education. Does this school need a lot of money thrown at it. No, just adjustments made by both teachers and parents. Maybe a ‘Friends of Barton School’ With the right encouragement their children can go on to get what they are looking for in life, whether it is working locally, going to College or University.
always risky looking down your nose at people who are in a less fortunate position. Each and every one of us is only ever a few steps away from destitution.
You can be fine one day, split up with your partner the next, get made redundant the following day and be served two months notice on your rented accommodation before the week is out. The job that you may have been doing, may only have just covered your bills and left virtually nothing to save – meaning no deposit or months rent in your account for a new place.
Single, homeless and jobless in a week. Can happen and does happen.
Whilst those with children would not be left to sleep rough, for obvious reasons, they may only get a box room somewhere for all of them, for months until better is found, however, those without children face a bleak cold night or more on the street.
Do not think you are safe if you are not renting, because if you have a mortgage and cannot pay, you get evicted and the place gets repossessed.
You could own your house outright and have loads of cash, yet contract an illness, that eats up every penny you have, trying to treat it, you then sell your house, spend the money on your condition and end up on benefits, in a one room bedsit and still suffering with your condition and struggling to buy food or medicine.
Next time you see someone homeless, or picking up the cheapest food possible in the store, whilst trying to drag kids around – think to yourself, that could be me, however, it isn’t today. I am lucky today, hopefully my luck will hold.
No one is immune from poverty, no matter what we all may think.
I agree with every single word and comma! I slept rough in London years ago and it’s something you never forget; I am grateful every day for everything I have now, but I know that there are many not so lucky, and it incenses me that people (like even my own mother), who have far far more than me, and yet appreciate none of it, state that poorer people “choose to live like that” – It frightens me that people are so unaware…
World English Bible
For he will stand at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul. A Psalm by David
For sure, none given, what you say is very true for a few cases.
Can’t be disagreed with.
Yet neither can the selfish women and men, who are putting themselves first, and the children they produce last. These are NOT ‘parent’s but low life that have done the easiest thing in the world, had a child, yet expect others to care for it now, financially and morally.
Those paying for these selfish people, have had enough, watching them create mini clones, whilst the womb owner prances around in designer gear, the sperm donner IF still around, drives the largest car, all on facebook all day on the latest phone, selling a bit of ‘gear’, claiming every benefit going.
Don’t PRETEND that such are NOT the majority now of such people.
For every genuine case, I would reckon their to be a dozen at least, more as I describe.
IF you are in poverty WHY have more children putting them through such? BECAUSE they are ‘better off’ doing so, and cant easily be evicted for not paying the rent, the bills or drug dealing.
Give vouchers for all child benefits which are only redeemable by the parent (or parents in rare cases where the male is apparently STILL with the ‘muvver’ of ‘me kids’).
I just don’t agree that “they” are the huge majority.. the main problem here is an economy where if you get a job in Tesco stocking shelves then you’ve made it ( nothing against stocking shelves..) but the mentality here is dead set against innovation that would provide PROPER jobs and a thriving economy, with nimbys at every turn blocking iniatives that might be good for the economy while they enjoy their retirement holiday island view, at the cost of the mental health of people not so fortunate.. one of the largest suicide rates in the country, yes, a drug problem also.. failing schools, hospitals under special measures..one of the largest fail rates for small businesses in first year in the UK; it’s the haves and the have nots and the haves control the agenda.. bullying an impotent council that blames all woes on government cuts ( or Wightlink!) as do the people of the island, try looking in the mirror instead, yet it’s all a lot of young (or old people) know because they live in a bubble.. I always advise young people to get off the island and maybe come back when you’ve made it, to try and initiate change injecting some iniative and enterprise, make a change but it’s an uphill task with the island mentality, although some people are undeserving a lot of it is throwing stones at the symptoms of a local government that doesn’t know how to govern with the specific assent of a large proportion of the population..
You would need to define “proper jobs” for the argument to gain traction. The Island by its very nature is never going to be an industrial hub and its economy is reflected across the country in all coastal towns. All those coastal resorts practically close in the winter.
People want to go to the beach in the summer and they do not expect to see factories ruining the view. Failure rates for businesses aren’t usually the fault of the council. A business fails because it doesn’t attract enough users or customers, or isn’t
structured correctly and goes under due to mismanagement.
The Island has large swathes which are either farmland, areas of special scientific interest or green belt protected lands – these will not be built on or developed. There is only a finite amount of space and it will not be turned into a concrete jungle.
If your definition of making it, cannot be found on the Island, then yes, you move off of it, however, for some people, a simple job stacking shelves, that pays enough to get by is all they want. No real responsibility, no pressure, just turn up, do the job, get paid and go home. Some people are looking for fulfilment in life outside the corporate sphere or career market.
Yep, cannot deny that there are those who see the benefit system as a lifestyle choice, rather than the safety net that it is meant to represent. I personally know people, who left school and have never done a days work in their entire lives so far. They actively avoid working and “blag the social” as they put it, at every opportunity and turn. They have no intention whatsoever of working and aim to slide neatly through into state pension benefits at the appropriate time.
Too much spent on drugs. End child tax credits end child allowance, and give non redeemable vouchers for any child care only.
Too many have children knowing that they will make them better off, and get given a home, yet the cash is used for drugs, then beer, then phones, then largest TV, then a car, then clothing, with a tiny amount filtering down to the children, who then have little choice but to grow up equally as useless as the womb owner and sperm donner, for parents many of them ARE NOT.
I realise that many people do NOT live like that, but a massive huge and growing proportion do.
IF the cat fits, wear it.
I don’t dispute that some poor people live like that, I do dispute that “a massive huge and growing proportion do” inferring that most poor people are undeserving of compassion, as false as a belief by some uninformed people that most Muslims are terrorists, it is the same kneejerk reaction that sets people against people in many areas instead of actually getting informed.. I perceive this to be so it must be so; and even if it isn’t so, I don’t really care, because my opinion is far more important than engaging with a problem that doesn’t effect me anyway..