As part of my Ph.D studies, I am currently engrossed in reading the report drawn by the Social Mobility Commission (2017).
This report emphasises the fact that at secondary level, pupils from a low income household, make less progress than their more affluent peers. Thus, these pupils who come from a disadvantaged background, have limited opportunities of further education, at the end of year 11.
One case study school, which took part in the study, identified material poverty as limiting low income pupils’ capacity to complete homework. This school is identified as School Five.
“The bigger barrier comes really from children not having a space at home to do the work in, they’re all sharing bedrooms, no child that I know here has their own bedroom. Not having a space to do homework, not having the family understanding that they need to do homework” (Social Mobility commission, page 26).
This has led me to think about John, the boy whom I talked about in previous blogs. During parents' day, his grandmother came to talk to me personally. The main thing that emerged was that due to his dysfunctional family, John is suffering mentally, and this had also impacted his academic achievement, which has taken a down turn.
In fact, John fits squarely into the quote above. The boy has no privacy whatsoever. His grandma admitted that he sleeps with her, and that he does his homework and studying on the kitchen table. HIs relationship with his mother is turbulent. He has no father. Given that John has recently lost his grandfather, on whom he looked up as a father figure,and came to our school last September, it stands to reason that the boy has been passing from one trauma to another. This past term was not the best for John, indeed.
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