Children, Poverty, Wellbeing and Learning

As a teacher and an educator your first concern is with the wellbeing of the children. How can they learn if they’re tired, frightened, upset, ill, anxious, distracted or hungry?

We often talk about the need to listen very carefully to what children tell us about themselves, their siblings and their friends. Recent Guardian articles, including one published today, have highlighted the effects of poverty on our children:

What poverty means to children

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/sep/09/what-poverty-means-to-children

To accompany Save the Children’s first survey into poverty in the UK, award-winning photographer Spencer Murphy records the view from one east London borough

by Jon Henley

According to Save the Children, which commissioned the series to mark the publication of its first ever domestic appeal and survey of child poverty in the UK, Britain’s poorest children are bearing the brunt of the recession and spending cuts, while families on modest incomes are increasingly struggling.

The report, based on interviews with 1,500 children and 5,000 parents, half of them in areas of high deprivation, found that one in eight of Britain’s poorest children are going without at least one hot meal a day, and 43% had seen their parents cutting back on food and clothes.

Some 15% have to go without new shoes, 14% are denied a warm winter coat and 23% are missing out on school trips because parents cannot afford them. Nearly 30% of parents say they cannot afford to have their children’s friend round for tea, and 10% of children cannot celebrate their birthdays.

The charity aims to raise £500,000 to help its work in the UK, and is calling on government to encourage more employers to pay the living wage, strengthen the new Universal Credit welfare system and help parents afford to work by providing extra child care support. Poverty, says Justin Forsyth, Save the Children’s chief executive, “is tearing families apart”.

Children’s views of poverty: in pictures

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2012/sep/09/children-s-views-of-poverty

Save the Children launches campaign to help UK families in poverty
Save the Children is seeking to raise £500,000 to help children from low-paid working families, who it says are going without hot meals and winter clothes

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Save the Children launches campaign to help UK families in poverty

Save the Children is seeking to raise £500,000 to help children from low-paid working families, who it says are going without hot meals and winter clothes

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/sep/05/save-the-children-uk-campaign

by Patrick Butler

Launching its appeal, which bears the slogan It Shouldn’t Happen Here, the charity said: “It is shocking to think that in the UK in 2012, families are being forced to miss out on essentials like food or take on crippling debts just to meet everyday living costs.” Asked whether an anti-poverty fundraising appeal was necessary in the sixth richest country in the world, Chris Wellings, Save the Children’s UK head of policy, said: “Poverty in the UK is different to some of the poorer countries in the world. It is more nuanced and poses different problems. But it does not mean that we cannot stand up for children’s rights in the UK.”

Save the Children plans to spend money raised on its Eat, Sleep, Learn, Play programme, which gives cookers, beds and other essential household items to families living in poverty, and its Fast scheme, which helps low-income parents to provide provide at-home educational support to their children.

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Please take a look at the Save The Children website:

http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/uk-child-poverty

Right now, in this country, children are going to school hungry because they don’t get a proper breakfast. They go through winter without a warm coat or a decent pair of shoes. Some even have to sleep on a damp mattress on the floor because they don’t have their own bed.