Child Poverty

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Essay on Child Poverty:

“Examine the characteristics and circumstances of children living in poverty, and assess the main responses of social policy towards improving their lives”

Poverty is the greatest threat to the well being of children, it can affect every area of a child's development social, educational and personal. There are currently 3.8 million children living in poverty in the UK according to (Barnardos 2011). The UK has one of the worst rates of child poverty in the industrialised world. For this essay I am going to examine the characteristics of children who live in poverty and discuss how living in poverty circumstances can affect a child’s life in health and education. I will also discuss what actions are being taken
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In advantage schools children recognised and appreciated that they learnt better because teachers were trying to make learning interesting and fun. In most of the disadvantage schools there were many compliments such as the nature of the school, the quality of food, glass on the playground and attitudes of teachers. They also complained about being shouted at; Goretti also discusses that they are many pressures for teachers working in disadvantage schools they deal with welfare issues, hungry children and behavioural problems have an effect on teachers. According to …… children growing up in poverty are more likely to expect to leave school at sixteen, this factor decreases the chance of receiving high grade GCSE’s. Also nearly 90 per cent of failing schools are located in deprived areas and have a large proportion of children eligible for free school meals.
Children in poverty not only are educationally disadvantaged by missing out on school activities but also socially disadvantaged. They are excluded from taken part in everyday opportunities and experiences shared by their peers in school because of their poverty. Tess Ridge (2004) states that from her recent research examining poverty from a Childs perspective that children living in households receiving low income means tested benefits having different experiences at school to their non benefit peers.
In 1999 the Prime Minster

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