preview

How Does Poverty Impact a Child’s Life Chances? Essay

Decent Essays

When you here the word poverty is society today, you automatically think about third world

countries and the people who are living in conditions not fit for life itself. We do not stop to think

about what is happening in this country.

The definition of poverty takes 2 forms, Poverty Org.uk states that absolute poverty refers to a

set of standards which is the same in all countries and which does not change over time,

whereas relative poverty refers to a standard which is defined in terms of the in which the

individual lives. In Britain when we take about poverty we are looking at relative poverty and

how this affects the children living within Britain and the education they receive.

According to End child …show more content…

This is a shocking figure

given the wealth of our nation.

Poverty can have a profound impact on the child, their family, and the rest of society. It often

sets in motion a deepening spiral of social exclusion, creating problems in education,

employment, mental and physical health and social interaction.

Does this mean that the system is failing these Children? Is this because there is a never ending

circle where if you are born into poverty, you will never know anything else and continue to live

in poverty. Another theory is that if your parents are under achieves you will under achieve and

so will future generations

The Joseph Rowntree foundation states that in the west midlands that on average 33% of

children live in relative poverty and that when you look at the level of education within these

areas the number of children that achieve GCSE’s on leaving secondary school is less than

50%. This may be because these students struggle at school and if their parents were low

achievers they will not be able to offer the right support to their children to achieve the standards

needed.

Ofsted (2005) stated that there is a strong link across every sector between deprivation and

poor quality provision. Areas with higher deprivation are more likely to have schools in an

ofsted category of concern than more advantaged areas. This could be because everyone living

in a catchments area for a school are

Get Access