Price of Pupil Poverty – Taking a Whole School Approach to improve the wellbeing of children from low income and disadvantaged backgrounds

The Price of Pupil Poverty is a new and exciting project, delivered by Children in Wales working with a range of partners, including the End Child Poverty Network Cymru, the 4 Regional Education Consortia in Wales and informed by a number of education and policy leads with expertise and interest in this area.   The project is supported by funding through the Welsh Government’s Support for Learners Division in the Education Directorate.

Phase 1 of the project has involved the development of a suite of Guides aimed at schools and educators, to raise awareness of the impact that poverty has on the everyday school experiences of pupils from low income and disadvantaged families.  The 5 guides each address a different aspect of the effects poverty has on pupils, identifies the issues or problems around poverty, highlights the impact it has on pupils and offers schools no cost or low cost solutions on the following topics:

• Understanding the causes, key drivers and impact on pupils of living in low incomes families
• Food and hunger
• School uniform & clothing
• Participation in the life of the school
• Home school relationship

The guides can be found on the Welsh Government’s Hwb website

Children in Wales has recruited a Development Officer to deliver Phase 2 of the project.  This will involve identifying and engaging directly with schools to:

• Deliver training activities to schools using resources that complement the Price of Pupil Poverty suite of guides
• Provide advice and support to schools, through a named member of staff
• Work with schools to develop action plans to reduce the impact of poverty and promote wellbeing
• Build an evidence base on the effectiveness of poverty proofing in schools using the Price of Pupil Poverty guides

To identify promising practice examples in poverty-proofing, building on the Price of Pupil Poverty guides.