The Education Select Committee continued its inquiry into left behind white pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds on Tuesday taking evidence from a range of organisations. As in previous sessions, the importance of place was emphasised.
Matt Leach, CEO of Local Trust, said that white disadvantaged pupils are often concentrated in areas that combine deprivation and a profound loss of social infrastructure; ‘they are often peripheral estates on the edge of industrial or former industrial towns and cities’.
Suzanne Wilson, a researcher at the University of Central Lancashire, agreed. She pointed towards many of these communities in question living in post-industrial towns where employment opportunities were poor. Additionally, they are often vulnerable to ‘educational isolation, where young people have fewer opportunities for new experiences and it can be more difficult to recruit and retain highly skilled teachers’.
Edward Davies, Director of Policy at the Centre for Social Justice, did say that place is important, but noted however that the question of family is too easily overlooked. Family breakdown, he argued, had a huge impact on a range of issues whether it is criminal justice, mental health or homelessness.
Katie Sullivan from ‘Get Active’ went on to discuss further family concerns. She said that place can impact on cultural attitudes towards education. Parents in white working class communities have often had a poor experience of education, and despite changes that have taken place in schools, parents in left behind communities don’t know how to navigate the education system and relate to what their children are experiencing in their day-to-day lives, limiting parent’s ability to support and encourage their children’s learning.
However, Suzanne Wilson added that we had to be careful about using language that discouraged parents from engaging with schools. She said many parents felt that they were judged on their current situation, discomfort engaging with schools and teachers where they felt they could not communicate on an equal level, and that schools were all about targets, where parents wanted to protect their child from harm. Building back relations between schools and left behind communities was key.
As well as the role schools could play, Miriam Jordan Keane, from the National Citizen Service emphasised issues outside of the classroom; ‘there is a whole area outside the classroom where we need to find ways to access the young people who do not necessarily feel that school is a happy place.’
The evidence session outlined the complex impact of disadvantage on educational attainment. In our Manifesto for North East Education a key recommendation was to recognise contextual challenges, particularly these multiple long term issues of deprivation and place. The need for a curriculum accessible to all, supporting teacher recruitment and retention in left behind communities like the North East, and a joined-up approach to education policy that recognise that schools are not an island, all formed recommendations in our manifesto, and are issues raised throughout the select committee sitting. These perennial challenges are now being exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, and will remain a key part of Schools North East’s lobbying work.
