SMALL VOICE BIG STORY

SMALL VOICE BIG STORY

Reducing the impact of poverty on the educational achievement of young people in Wales By the Young Welsh Researchers January 2013

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CONTENTS 2 4 5

Acknowledgements About the authors Foreword

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Summary and recommendations

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The background to our research

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The results of our research

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How to make it happen

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Summary of findings and recommendations

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Appendix 1

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Appendix 2

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References

Research aims and objectives Putting the research in context Our research question

School and our futures – what difference does poverty make? What children and young people need to reach their potential

1 2 3 4 5 6

A safe place to learn One to one support from other students Somebody to talk to about home and school A special fund for children to join in ‘Going further than ever’advice on what to do after school Telling our story. Having our Say

Demographic How we planned and collected the data

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Young Welsh Researchers, the Participation Unit and Save the Children would like to thank all the children and young people who took part in this research and freely gave of their time. We would also like to thank staff in those after-school clubs and projects that helped with the research, for their time and the provision of rooms. We would like to acknowledge the contribution made by the pupils and staff at all the schools that contributed to the research. We would especially like to thank all the young people that contributed in numerous ways and provided their views and opinions that formed the basis of this report about poverty and education. Special thanks must go to the schools where focus groups were held, Blaengwawr Comprehensive School, Cyfarthfa High School and St. Johns Baptist Church in Wales High School. We would like to thank Professor Peter Robinson and Emma Marshman from Glamorgan University, Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries for their support with the ethics application. The report authors would like to give a special mention to the Participation Unit at Save the Children for funding the project and to Ruth Mullineux and Rachel Wrathall for their support throughout the project and for their continued efforts to raise awareness of this research. Their help and guidance throughout the project was invaluable.

PROJECT FUNDING AND PARTNERS

The project was funded by the European Social Fund through the Participation Unit which is based at Save the Children in Wales. The Participation Unit works to increase children and young people’s participation in decision making in Wales. Save the Children works in more than 120 countries. We save children’s lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential.

Big Learning Company Wales is a vibrant and dynamic training provider, inspiring young people by delivering high-level skills and innovative training solutions. For more information about this report please contact Rachel Wrathall, Programme Officer [email protected] or Ruth Mullineux, Policy Officer [email protected]

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS The main report authors are Amelia John (aged 16), Brandon Steverson (aged 17), Alison Beesley (age 18) and Lauren Crisp (age 18). We worked on all aspects of the research and are the main report authors. We wrote the report with the help of Louise Harris from the Big Learning Company Wales and Christine Wilson who is a senior researcher.

AMEL

BRANDON

IA

We are all members of the Young Welsh Researchers (YWR), a group of 25 young people who have been brought together by the Participation Unit and the Big Learning Company Wales to undertake research from a young person’s perspective about issues that directly affect us as children and young people in Wales. Apart from the research findings, one of the other main outcomes of the project has been that we have all recently decided to continue our education and career development. This is something that has been made all the more possible by our engagement with the project and by gaining accreditation for the work we have undertaken: • Amelia has returned to full time education to complete her A-levels • Lauren and Alison are preparing their applications to study at university • Brandon has been offered employment to continue the work started by this project to develop the Young Welsh Researchers’ project with other young people in Wales

LAURE

N

ALISON

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FOREWORD I am delighted to have the opportunity to provide a foreword for this exciting and innovative report. Here we have a report written by young people who have been trained in research methods and who have reached out and successfully captured and written up the views of other young people. This report matters as it is young people themselves sharing their views and experiences with us – the people they turn to in the hope that we can make change happen. Save the Children believes that a child’s background should not determine the opportunities they have in life; that every child has the potential to shine, they just need the chance. It is acknowledged that there is a very strong and growing link between poverty and low levels of educational achievement in Wales’ schools; by GCSE level a 34% gap exists in attainment between children living in low income households and their better off classmates. In recognition of this, the Welsh Government has allocated funding to schools to put effective interventions in place to reduce the impact of poverty on education. ‘Small Voice: Big Story’ captures young people’s views on how the Welsh Government can take further action. Over the past year, the Participation Unit at Save the Children has worked with the Big Learning Company to train a group of 25 young researchers to gather

MARY POWELL- CHANDLER Head of Save the Children in Wales the views of children across Wales, on the impact that poverty has on education. This research has been designed, delivered and written-up by young people and their report makes a series of insightful recommendations about actions that they would like to see implemented. We know that the impact of poverty is complex and far-reaching; that it affects parents, children, home-life, schools, entire communities. It is not surprising that it also has a serious impact on a child’s ability to do well at school. Save the Children has also highlighted the ‘hidden costs’ of education which include the costs of school uniforms, kit, classroom materials, activities and school trips which provide additional challenges to families living in poverty. The findings presented in ‘Small Voice: Big Story’ provide another dimension to the debate. Decisionmakers in Welsh Government and in Local Authorities now have the opportunity to use this unique report and its recommendations when considering how to reduce the impact of poverty. Furthermore, schools and governors should now take action to turn the young people’s vision into a reality and take positive steps in breaking the link between poverty and education once and for all. I am hopeful that that this report will be welcomed as a very positive way forward in Wales.

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SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This is our (the young Welsh Researchers’) first piece of research and it investigates the issue of poverty and its impact on education – a topic we identified as important to children and young people living in Wales. We undertook research with young people in Wales aged between 11 and 14 years. 178 young people took part. They each completed an online questionnaire. We also held 3 focus groups with a total of 22 young people.

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Nearly half of the young people we spoke to told us that they thought not having a lot of money made a difference to how well they did at school. More than a third told us that not having enough money affected the activities they could take part in at school. However lots of the children and young people we spoke to thought that money shouldn’t make a difference and that children should all have an equal chance of doing well at school, regardless of their background. Despite this, the vast majority of children said that they felt that not having enough money can affect hopes for the future. Our research showed that a home (and a nice environment at home), a supportive family and an

education were the main things that children felt they need to reach their potential at school. This reflects a desire for a warm and safe space to learn. Children also told us about lots of issues with access to equipment, transport and joining in. Another key theme was that confidence and low self-worth was impacting on behaviour in school which in turn could obstruct learning for everyone. Young people suggested a number of different ways of solving these problems. We have developed these into six recommendations for Welsh Government, Local Authorities, Schools and Governors in Wales.

7 Recommendation 1

Recommendation 4

We recommend that every school seek to establish a CIC - Cartref I Cartref (Home to Home) study centre, a place in a school where children can go to study and gain extra educational help and support, which feels like a home from home.

We recommend that the Welsh Government set up a fund to help children in poverty pay for things like books, stationery, travel and equipment to support advanced learning in after-school clubs and school trips.

Recommendation 2

Recommendation 5

A SAFE PLACE TO LEARN

ONE TO ONE SUPPORT FROM OTHER STUDENTS We recommend schools set up a peer-learning support system. Friends or older students would be the teachers and they would get accreditation for helping younger students out. Recommendation 3

SOMEBODY TO TALK TO ABOUT HOME AND SCHOOL We would like a key worker who is a regular point of contact in school and can bridge the gap between home and school.

We now need decision-makers, schools, teachers and governors to play their role in helping us to make these recommendations come to life, so that all children and young people living in Wales can reach their full potential.

A SPECIAL FUND FOR CHILDREN TO “JOIN IN”

“GOING FURTHER THAN EVER” We recommend that schools should set up schemes where community role models could come into schools to give real-life careers advice. We also recommend that a free ‘app’ for children in Wales is developed to provide information about access to training and their future education and career needs. This should be designed by young people. Recommendation 6

TELLING OUR STORY. HAVING OUR SAY We recommend that the Young Welsh Researchers continue to conduct research and provide a voice for children and young people in Wales. The first project the Young Welsh Researchers will seek funding for is the ‘Going further than ever project’ (Recommendation 5) to develop the free “further than ever” app for children in Wales.

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THE BACKGROUND TO OUR RESEARCH We are the Young Welsh Researchers, a group of 25 young people who have been brought together by the Participation Unit at Save the Children and the Big Learning Company Wales to undertake research from a young person’s perspective about issues that directly affect us.

We know that children and young people are, more often than not, excluded from the research process; we are rarely involved in shaping research agendas or conducting research projects. This means that our perspectives are often filtered through the interpretations of adult researchers. This research project set out to challenge this. In accordance with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the project recognises that children and young people are experts on their own lives and have a right to express their views freely in all matters affecting them. Doing youth-led research sends out a signal about the importance placed on the value of young people’s perspectives. We were given training and support so that we could investigate issues that we identified as important, and conduct our own original research study. More information about how we developed and ran our research project can be found in Appendix 2.

RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES We hope to contribute to the body of knowledge on the ‘lived’ experiences of children and young people. Helping children and young people to undertake their own research is integral to the project’s short and longer-term goals.

The aim of our research was to investigate poverty and how it affects the education of children and young people in Wales, and to see what would have the most benefit and allow them to achieve their full potential.

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PUTTING THE RESEARCH IN CONTEXT – OUR LITERATURE REVIEW At the start of the research project, when we first decided to investigate the issue of poverty and its impact on education, we looked at a lot of different literature. We looked at what research was already out there to help us better understand child poverty, and how it affects education. We also looked at research projects done by other young researchers to learn about how they made their project a success. Firstly, we needed to find a definition for the term ‘poverty’ – one that we could understand and make sense of. Save the Children provided us with their definition of poverty and we used this to help us describe what we meant by the term:

“Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the types of diet, participate in the activities, and have the living conditions and amenities which are customary, or at least widely encouraged and approved, in the societies in which they belong. In terms of child poverty this can mean that children miss out on daily essentials, such as healthy food, warm clothes in winter and new shoes when they need them. It can also mean that they don’t have the things they need for a fulfilling childhood like having friends round for tea.”

Child poverty is a breach of children’s rights. Access to a standard of living adequate to fulfil a child’s physical, mental, social and moral development is a right under Article 27 of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and under Article 4 of the UNCRC all governments must spend to the ‘maximum extent to available resources’ to free children from a life of poverty. We read reports and other types of research literature and we also watched a number of filmsI on the effects of poverty on young people growing up across the UK. One film in particular, ‘Poor Kids’II really brought the issues home to us. When we read the literature and watched the films we asked several important questions: Is it relevant to Wales? Who wrote it and was there a conflict of interest between the author/film makers and the findings? When was the research done? When and where was it published? Are there any gaps in the literature? Here are some of the main academic literature/ reports that we read during the literature review process: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Egan, D. (2012) Communities, Families and Schools TogetherIII York Young Researchers (2011) Child Poverty in the City of YorkIV Crowley, A. & Vulliamy, C. (2002) Listen Up! Children and Young People Talk: About PovertyV Horgan, G. (2009) Speaking Out Against Poverty: voices of children living in disadvantaged areasVI Welling, C. & Alexander, F. (2011) Better Odds at School campaign report: A Pupil Premium to help close the educational attainment gapVII Higgins, S. et al (2011) Toolkit of Strategies to Improve Learning Summary for Schools Spending the Pupil PremiumVIII Gorard, S. et al (2012) The Impact of Attitudes and Aspirations on Educational Attainment and Participation.IX

Overall, the literature and films helped us to gain a better understanding of the effects of poverty on educational attainment in the UK. While conducting the literature review, we also looked at Welsh Government policy documents. These helped us to realise that the topic of our research - reducing the impact poverty can have on education, is a major focus of Welsh government policy.

10 A number of their documents highlighted this, for example the Tackling Poverty Action PlanX has a major focus on poverty and education and the impact this has on Wales and people in Wales:

“POVERTY RESULTS IN POORER EDUCATIONAL, HEALTH AND BEHAVIOURAL OUTCOMES FOR INDIVIDUALS. POVERTY IMPOSES ENORMOUS COSTS ON SOCIETY FROM LOWER ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITY, REDUCED SOCIAL COHESION AND INCREASED DEMANDS

ON PUBLIC SERVICES SUCH AS HEALTH CARE AND CHILDREN’S SERVICES. THE LOWER LEVEL OF SKILLS; POOR HEALTH AND POVERTY OF AMBITION THAT DEPRIVATION BRINGS WITH IT ARE A BRAKE ON THE POTENTIAL OF THE WELSH ECONOMY.”

Importantly, the Welsh Government has also made reducing the ‘poverty gap’ one of three national priorities for schools in Wales. We were able to see that strong links have already been made between young people’s low educational achievement and poverty. In other words, it has already been found that if you grow up in a family affected by poverty then you are less likely to reach your full educational potential. Yet it was also clear from looking at the literature, that there were gaps in the research, especially research looking at specific ways to reduce and/or eradicate some of the impact poverty has on the educational achievements of young people in Wales. Young people’s views on what specific actions should be taken, was also something that had not been explored. This is when we decided on our research question and started to look at designing a study that would provide information on this important topic. This would be our first piece of research.

(TACKLING POVERTY ACTION PLAN 2012 – 2016, WELSH GOVERNMENT)

OUR RESEARCH QUESTION After undertaking our literature review, the overall research question we agreed was ‘How can the impact of poverty on the educational achievement of young people in Wales be reduced?’

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THE RESULTS OF OUR RESEARCH Our findings reflect the views and opinions of young people aged between 11 and 14 years living in Wales, on poverty and its impact on education. A total of 183 responses were received to our online questionnaire. Of these 178 of the questionnaires were completed in full, five responses had missing data (Appendix 1). Along with the information we collected from young people using the questionnaire we also carried out focus group interviews with a further three groups of young people (a total of 22 young people aged 11-14) to investigate some of the issues in which we were most interested, in more depth (Appendix 1).

SCHOOL AND OUR FUTURES – WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES POVERTY MAKE? When young people were asked if they thought that growing up in a family that doesn’t have a lot of money made a difference to how well they do at school, over half of young people said that it didn’t

make a difference, 58.5% (Fig. 1). This was really interesting, but it’s also really important to note that 60.3% thought that having enough money made a difference to the activities they could take part in at school (Fig. 2). We were a little surprised that more young people thought that money didn’t affect education than those that did. But when we looked closer at the results, most of the children and young people said that the reason for their answer was that having less money should not make a difference to education and that a lack of money should not be allowed to hold people back. This was really interesting and showed a strong belief that everybody should have the same chance in life.

“YOU DON’T NEED MONEY TO FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS.” “EVERYONE’S EQUAL AND JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVEN'T GOT OFF TO THE BEST START DOESN'T MEAN THEY WON'T BE SUCCESSFUL.”

“JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE A DISADVANTAGED BACKGROUND DOESN'T MEAN THEY CAN'T BUILD UP A BRIGHT FUTURE THEMSELVES.” COMMENTS FROM QUESTION 4, SURVEY

It was also interesting to see that when we asked what they thought the chances are of a young person being successful in life if they are brought up in a family that doesn’t have a lot of money; most young people thought that they had the same or some chance of being successful.

12 Figure 1

Figure 2

IF A YOUNG PERSON GROWS UP IN A FAMILY THAT DOESN’T HAVE A LOT OF MONEY DO YOU THINK IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE TO HOW WELL THEY DO AT SCHOOL? YES NO

IF A YOUNG PERSON GROWS UP IN A FAMILY THAT HAS VERY LITTLE MONEY DOES THIS AFFECT WHAT ACTIVITIES THEY CAN TAKE PART IN AT SCHOOL? YES NO

Figure 4

DO YOU THINK SCHOOL AND EDUCATION CAN GIVE YOUNG PEOPLE A WAY OUT OF POVERTY?

YES NO

Figure 3

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE CHANCES ARE OF A YOUNG PERSON BEING SUCCESSFUL IN LIFE IF THEY ARE BROUGHT UP IN A FAMILY THAT DOESN'T HAVE A LOT OF MONEY? 100 80 60 40 20

1 They have no chance of being successful

2 They have some chance of being successful

3 They have the same chances of being successful as anyone else

4 They have loads of chance to be sucessful

5 They have every chance of being successful

0

We were surprised by this response because lots of the young people also said that not having much money does affect how well people do at school, but it is important to recognise that very few young people thought they had loads or every chance of being successful if they lived in poverty (Fig. 3). One comment from the survey sums it up: Comments from Question 4, Survey

“EVERYONE HAS A CHANCE BUT SOME PEOPLE HAVE MORE THAN OTHERS.” It was also interesting to see that when we asked whether or not having much money affected young people’s hopes for the future, the vast majority of young people told us that they believe that living in poverty can affect hopes for the future, 68%. A really high proportion of the children and young people we spoke to (84.4%) thought that education was a route out of poverty (Fig. 4). Comments from Question 4, Survey

“MONEY DOES NOT GET YOU A JOB, EDUCATION DOES.”

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WHAT CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO REACH THEIR POTENTIAL

We asked children and young people what they felt were the basic things they needed to reach their potential. The top answers which each received support from 93% of young people were an education and a home (Fig. 5). Following this, 85.6% of the young people we spoke to told us that a supportive family was one of the most important things. In this question we asked the children and young people for any additional comments, and it was really interesting to see that love and support from family/parents were some of the top answers. This is especially interesting because Save the Children’s earlier work in this area has shown us that 85% of a child’s success at school depends on the type of support they receive outside the school gatesXI. Other answers gave us an idea of the types of environment at home that young people felt was important. 85.6% of young people thought food and drink were very important and 70.7% said that warmth made a difference to whether children and young people are able to reach their potential. As well as these popular answers a further 34.8% of children identified the need for ‘somewhere quiet to study’. What’s more, in their additional comments many children and young people told us about the importance of ‘somewhere safe to be’.

Confidence was also a major issue amongst the young people that completed the questionnaire and those that took part in the focus group interviews. When young people were asked if not having a lot of money made a difference to how well they did at school, confidence and bullying emerged as some of the main reasons that the 42.5% of young people said ‘yes’. Comments from Question 4, Survey

“PEOPLE MAY FEEL EMBARRASSED OR SHY ABOUT BEING POOR AND NOT MAKE FRIENDS AND NOT WANT TO COME TO SCHOOL SO DON’T GET AN EDUCATION.” ‘YOU COULD BE BULLIED WHICH WEAKENS YOUR CONFIDENCE IN YOUR WORK.’ These themes were discussed in greater detail during the focus group interviews. Young people told us that poverty could affect a young person’s self-worth. Focus Group 3

“IF YOU DON’T HAVE CONFIDENCE THEN YOU DON’T JOIN IN WITH ANYTHING OR TAKE UP THE THINGS THAT ARE THERE LIKE AFTER-SCHOOL THINGS”

14 We also discussed how self-esteem could impact on how they went on to behave in school and obstruct learning for everyone, not just the person with low self-confidence. Young people felt that if a person could keep their self-confidence high then this would support them to do well in school. But a lot of young people in the focus groups said low self-value would often mean a person messed around in school, which could disrupt everyone’s learning.

Focus Group 2

“THEY JOKE AROUND AND LIKE PAY NO ATTENTION AND THEY STILL EXPECT TO GET A JOB.” One of the questions we asked during the focus groups was, “Do you think confidence is important?”, and young people indicated that not only was it important, but that some schools were already helping pupils to overcome this and that they would like to see more of this.

Figure 5 The basic things children need to reach their potential

WHAT ARE THE BASIC THINGS YOU THINK CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO REACH THEIR POTENTIAL AND BE SUCCESSFUL IN LIFE? 200

150

100

50

0 1 A Home

2 A Supportive family

3 Money

4 Food and drink

5 Warmth

6 7 The chance Friends to have a say about what matters to them

8 An Education

9 10 Somewhere A safe place quiet to to play study

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HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN FIGURE 7 spending money to help children in poverty do well

IF SCHOOLS HAD THE MONEY TO HELP CHILDREN FROM POORER FAMILIES DO WELL, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL THEM TO SPEND IT ON? 1 2 3 4 5 6

Free after-school clubs More Maths and English tutoring in school Key workers (skilled and specialist staff who help children bridge the gap between what’s going on at home and their school work) More teachers More teaching assistants Peer mentoring (pupils working one to one together to help each other out and learn new skills)

7 Smaller class sizes 8 Improving feedback between teachers and pupils (so that pupils better understand how well they are doing and which areas they need to work more on) 9 More lessons in different subjects 10 More one-to-one tuitions 11 All other responses

We considered all the information that the young people gave us and from the results of the research, we have been able to identify six key areas where children and young people would like to see change.

100

80

60

40

We asked young people what they thought schools could spend money on to help children from poorer families do well at school. Young people were allowed to select multiple choices from a range of options (Fig. 7). We chose the options for this question by looking at evidence of what things make a difference in reducing how poverty can affect educationXII. The young people’s answers to this question, comments left on the survey and further discussion during the focus groups all helped us to identify six areas for action.

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0 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

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A SAFE PLACE TO LEARN

Lots of discussions were had in the focus groups about the need for a safe, warm and innovative place to learn. This reflected the findings from the survey on what is needed to help young people reach their potential; a home (and a nice environment at home), a supportive family and an education. The young people that took part in the focus groups gave a number of really useful suggestions as to what schools could do in terms of help and support in school. The answers we got helped us come up with the idea of ‘Cartref I Cartref (Home to Home) study centres’ (CICs) somewhere children can go to gain extra educational help and support.1 Focus Group 1

“YEAH, I THINK THEY SHOULD [PROVIDE A SPECIAL PLACE TO LEARN] BECAUSE THEY [YOUNG PEOPLE IN POVERTY] WOULDN'T GET THAT MUCH EDUCATION IF THEY’RE IN THEIR OWN HOUSE AS THEY HAVEN'T GOT ANY FACILITIES TO USE.” We know that young people in poverty often don’t have a warm, quiet or safe place to study with access to new technologies and innovative ways of learning. The young people we spoke to told us how important this is for learning and for motivating young people. They told us a CIC should be an inviting, innovative place to learn and study that goes far beyond a homework club and gives children in poverty somewhere they can make their own.

1 The name Cartref i Cartref/Home from Home was something that was mentioned by a young person in one of the early pilot sessions of this research and it summed up a lot of the themes that came out of the research.

Focus Group 2

“SO WHAT YOU COULD DO IS HAVE A COMFORTABLE AREA FOR THE PEOPLE LIVING IN POVERTY OR [IF] YOU’RE HAVING DIFFICULTY IN CERTAIN SUBJECTS, IT’LL BE MORE OF A COMFORTABLE ENVIRONMENT [...] TO COME TO […]” Another theme that was identified during the focus groups as an obstacle to learning was access to modern technology; young people told us that they wanted a place to study where modern equipment and new technologies are available to them.

Focus Group 1

“IT’S IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT INCLUDING COMPUTERS AND I PADS AND THINGS BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T THEN YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO DO ANYTHING. JOIN IN AND TAKE PART WITH THE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO TO BE GOOD AT SOMETHING.”

We recommend that every school seek to establish a CIC - Cartref I Cartref (Home to Home) study centre, a place in a school where children can go to study and gain extra educational help and support, which feels like a home from home.

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2

ONE TO ONE SUPPORT FROM OTHER STUDENTS

As highlighted in the previous section, poor levels of confidence came out as a recurring theme both from the questionnaires and the focus group data. Our findings suggested lots of different solutions to address this difficult problem; including developing some kind of confidencebuilding training programme. More one-to-one tuition (52%), more feedback from teachers (46.8%) and more support with core subjects like Maths and English tutoring (45.8%) in school were some of the top suggestions when young people were asked to choose what they would like to see money spent on to help children living in poverty. 41.3% of children and young people like the idea of peer-to-peer mentoring and in the focus groups young people took this one step further by suggesting that peer mentoring could be an important way to improve support and feedback in school and to help to build confidence (pupils working one-to-one together to help each other out and learn new skills). It was also identified that such a ‘peer-mentoring’ programme could be a feature of the CIC’s.

Young people said that a CIC should be a place where young people themselves could make the decisions about who taught them and what they needed to learn: Focus Group 2

Young people also felt that recognition or accreditation should be given to young people that provided additional help to others both inside and outside of school:

Focus Group 2 “YOU COULD ASK YOUR BEST FRIENDS, “WHOEVER TEACHES THEM COULD GET THE ONE YOU FEEL A SPECIAL PRIZE. REAL COMFORTABLE LIKE A CERTIFICATE.” WITH, LIKE IF I WAS HAVING PROBLEMS WITH ENGLISH I WOULD GO TO [NAME OF BEST FRIEND] BECAUSE SHE’S REALLY GOOD AT IT.”

Focus Group 2

“I THINK THEY SHOULD HAVE LIKE A CERTAIN PLACE YOU CAN GO TO HELP EACH OTHER.” Focus Group 2

“YOU COULD HAVE THE GROUP AS IT IS AND ONCE YOU’VE JOINED THE FIRST TIME […] IF YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE GETTING WORSE IN A SUBJECT THAT YOU THOUGHT YOU WAS OK AT, YOU COULD JUST JOIN IN.”

We recommend schools set up a peerlearning support system. Friends or older students would be the teachers and they would get accreditation for helping younger students out. This type of scheme would help to build the confidence of both mentors and mentees. This should complement the CIC Centres.

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3

SOMEBODY TO TALK TO ABOUT HOME AND SCHOOL

Our research showed us that young people wanted help in raising their self-confidence and support to give them the things they needed to succeed in learning. When we asked young people to describe the types of help and support they wanted to see around additional learning for young people in poverty in and out of school they gave us a number of really interesting suggestions. Our survey showed that a large number of young people (43.6%) thought money should be spent on skilled and specialist staff (who help children bridge the gap between what’s going on at home and their school work). As we saw in the previous section, more Maths and English tuition and improving feedback between teachers and pupils were also popular answers showing that that pupils want help to better understand how well they are doing and which areas they need to work more on. Focus Group 3

“THEY WOULD BE TALKING TO YOU MORE AND EXPLAINING MORE, IN NORMAL LESSONS THEY ARE LIKE ‘HERE IS WHAT YOU GOT TO DO’ AND THEY EXPLAIN IT ONCE [BUT] THEY COULD WALK YOU THROUGH IT […]” One comment said that children would have more chance of reaching their potential if they had one key person (like a teacher): Comment, Question 4, Survey.

“TO SUPPORT THEM ALL THE WAY THROUGH THEIR TIME AT SCHOOL.”

The young people we spoke to also said that outside of school it was important to have one key person that you could turn to for help and support with things like homework.

HOME THEY WILL BE HAPPY AND WITH SUPPORT WILL DO WELL AT SCHOOL.”

Comment, Question 4, Survey.

“YOU DON’T NEED MONEY IN LIFE YOU NEED LOVE WHICH HELPS EDUCATION.”

“I THINK THEY NEED A SUPPORTIVE FAMILY TO SPEAK TO SOMEONE ABOUT HOW THEY FEEL.” “SOMEONE THAT WILL SUPPORT THEM AND WILL HELP THEM.” This included good role models and a designated person or place to seek help both in and out of school. This is underlined by our findings that 85.6% young people we spoke to told us that a supportive family would help them reach their potential and the number of comments that said love and support from family were really important to how well children and young people can do in school. Comment, Question 4, Survey.

“IF THEY HAVE A HAPPY SUPPORTIVE FAMILY AND A GOOD

Our findings suggest that young people wanted more support and someone to talk to, to help them with their school work and their education. The research recognised that this support wasn’t always available at home for children living in poverty. Focus Group 1 Participant: Yes, maybe people in poverty who are upset could go see somebody and talk about why they are upset and that could make them feel better. Participant: And, do better in school. Interviewer: So do you think we need more people to speak to in these situations? Participant: Oh yeah, we really do.

We would like a key worker who is a regular point of contact in school and can bridge the gap between home and school, and that you can trust and talk to about any problems at home or with school work.

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4

A SPECIAL FUND FOR CHILDREN TO “JOIN IN”

50.4% of young people responding to our survey wanted to see more money spent on free after school clubs. The young people that took part in the focus groups told us that to motivate and raise a person’s self-confidence, being able to join in was important. Focus Group 3

“YOU NEED THE SCHOOL TO HELP PROVIDE THINGS LIKE RUNNING SHOES AND THE THINGS CHILDREN WOULD NEED TO BE ABLE TO JOIN IN WITH EVERYONE ELSE”. Young people told us that they often can’t join in because they can’t pay for the extra things they need like equipment, trips, travel, activities and socialising with friends. Making the opportunities easy and safe to access for young people was also something that was mentioned as important.

Focus Group 3

“I KNOW THAT WHEN THEY [SCHOOLS] HAVE PUT THINGS ON BEFORE WE HAVE BOTH HAD A PROBLEM DOING THE AFTERSCHOOL CLUBS AND THINGS LIKE THAT. I REMEMBER THIS ONE TIME WHEN WE MISSED THE BUS AND HAD TO WAIT FOR A BUS IN THE DARK TO GET HOME AND WE DIDN’T KNOW WHETHER THE BUS WOULD COME OR NOT”.

This was highlighted as a key barrier to learning which affects young people living in poverty. The Young Welsh Researchers would like to work with the Welsh Government and other interested organisations to look at ways to set up a fund to help young people to join in. We would like to help come up with ideas about how this fund could be supported or match funded by local communities with children and young people playing a key role in helping to raise money towards the fund.

Focus Group 3

“IT’S IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT AND THINGS BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T THEN YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO DO ANYTHING OR JOIN IN AND TAKE PART WITH THE THINGS YOU NEED TO BE GOOD AT SOMETHING.”

We recommend that the Welsh Government set up a pot of money to help children in poverty pay for things like additional books, stationery, travel and equipment to support advanced learning in after school clubs and school trips. The money is needed for things inside and outside school e.g. not just for clubs/trips but for accessing other social/ learning activities.

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5

‘GOING FURTHER THAN EVER’ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO AFTER SCHOOL

Over half 56.2% of young people we spoke to said they wanted to go on to study at university and a further 36.7% wanted to go to college. However, 80% of young people said how much money they had would affect whether they went on to further study or training (Fig.8). When we asked young people why they thought that how much money they had would affect whether they went on to further study they gave a variety of different reasons. The main reason being they thought that the fees for further study or training are too expensive (85%). They also thought that young people cannot afford the things they need to get to go on to study or training (e.g. course materials, books, tools) (59%). 29% of the young people that took part in the study could not think about further education beyond school because they were caring for someone at home (Fig. 9). We also asked young people if they had been offered any help or advice about what they wanted to do after leaving school (Fig. 10). We were surprised to find out that 59% said they had not received any help or advice. When we looked to see if there was any difference between girls and boys or the young people in the north or south of Wales, we found that the figures were similar across both regions but more boys than girls had received help and support e.g. of the 74 participants who said they had received careers advice 40 were male (54.1%) and 34 (45.9%) were female. Just over half of the people who had received careers advice lived in North Wales with the remainder living in South Wales. Our research showed us that young people wanted information about further study, study skills and careers advice that fits with today’s world.

Focus Group 1

Some schools were doing well in this area, but we found that good careers advice wasn’t there for every child in Wales and we think this isn’t good enough.

“THEY SHOULD MAKE IT EASIER TO GET WORK EXPERIENCE SO THEN YOU CAN PUT We were also told that young IT DOWN WHEN YOU people wanted to hear the APPLY FOR A JOB. experiences of role models who have done well in their careers. BECAUSE IT’S NOT This would help them think about EASY TO GET WORK IF what they could achieve. YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY Focus Group 1 GOT EXPERIENCE OF “IT COULD INSPIRE DOING THINGS.” THEM AS THEY SEEN “IT’S NOT EASY TO FIND PEOPLE WHO WENT A JOB. NOT A REALLY TO THAT SCHOOL GO GOOD JOB. IT’S EVEN FAR… THE TEACHERS COULD SUPPORT HARD TO GET A JOB THEM ON THEIR WAY. SAY IN SOMEWHERE WE HAD A FAMOUS LIKE WORKING IN A RUGBY PLAYER GO SHOP. BUT TO GET TO OUR SCHOOL A JOB THAT YOU HIS PICTURE’S IN REALLY WANT THEN RECEPTION TO YOU HAVE TO HAVE INSPIRE PEOPLE…” QUALIFICATIONS, GO TO UNIVERSITY...”

We recommend that schools should think about how community role models could come into schools to give real-life careers advice. Again, this could be a feature of the CIC’s (Cartref I Cartref, Home to Home study Centres). We also recommend that a free ‘app’ for children in Wales is developed to provide information about access to training; future education and career needs and that young people help in the design of this. For those children and young people that don’t have access to new technologies, access to this new careers advice ‘app’ must be made available directly via the CIC’ (Cartref I Cartref, Home to Home study Centre).

21 FIGURE 8 Poverty and post-16 decisions on education and training

DO YOU THINK NOT HAVING MUCH MONEY AFFECTS WHETHER YOUNG PEOPLE GO ON TO FURTHER STUDY OR TRAINING AFTER LEAVING SCHOOL?

YES 160

140

120

100

80

NO 60

40

20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

FIGURE 9 Why poverty affects post-16 decisions on education and training

IF YOU ANSWERED "YES" ABOVE COULD YOU PLEASE SAY WHY YOU THINK THIS? 140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0 1 The fees for further study or training are too expensive

2 Young people cant afford the things they need to get to go on to study or training (e.g. course materials, books, tools)

3 Young people think further education or training isn’t worth it

4 Their families don’t want them to go to uni or college

5 They have responsibilities at home (e.g. caring for a family member)

6 They want to get a job straight away after school so they can have some money

7 They don’t know what to do after school finishes

8 They don't think they are good enough

9 10 They don't Other think they will fit in

22 FIGURE 10 Advice on what to do after school

HAVE YOU BEEN OFFERED ANY HELP OR ADVICE ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO AFTER LEAVING SCHOOL?

NO

YES 120

100

80

60

40

20

0

20

40

60

80

100

6

TELLING OUR STORY. HAVING OUR SAY. We had a very high response rate to our research and lots of the young people who took part told us they would like to be involved in further research. This showed us that young people have a lot to say about things that affect them. Our group of Young Welsh Researchers is committed to continue to conduct research on the issues that affect children and young people in Wales. One of the first research projects that the Young Welsh Researchers will seek funding for is to develop a ‘Going further than ever’ project. Part of this research will set out to work with young people to develop the free careers/training “further than ever” app for children in Wales while looking at ways to make this a reality in the CIC’s (Cartref i Cartref, Home to Home study Centres).

We recommend that the Young Welsh Researchers continue to conduct research and provide a voice for children and young people in Wales.

120

23

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The young people that took part in our study, by completing the questionnaire and/or by taking part in the focus groups, all recognised that poverty has a damaging effect on a young person’s ability to learn both in and out of school. However the children and young people we spoke to thought that money shouldn’t make a difference and children should all have an equal chance of doing well at school, regardless of their background. Our research showed that a home (and a nice environment at home), a supportive family and an education were the main things that children felt they need to reach their potential at school, reflecting a desire for a warm, innovative and safe space to learn. Children also told us about lots of issues with access to equipment, transport and joining in.

Recommendation 1

A SAFE PLACE TO LEARN, A CIC CARTREF I CARTREF, HOME TO HOME STUDY CENTRE IN EVERY SCHOOL

Recommendation 4

A SPECIAL FUND FOR CHILDREN TO “JOIN IN” Recommendation 5

Recommendation 2

ONE TO ONE SUPPORT FROM OTHER STUDENTS

“GOING FURTHER THAN EVER” – REAL LIFE CAREER’S ADVICE AND A FREE ‘APP’ FOR INFORMATION ON CAREERS AND TRAINING

Recommendation 3

Recommendation 6

SOMEBODY TO TALK TO ABOUT HOME AND SCHOOL

TELLING OUR STORY. HAVING OUR SAY.

Another key theme was confidence and low selfworth. Young people thought that living in poverty affected people’s confidence and self-worth and that this impacted on their behaviour in school. Respondents thought that the impact of confidence on behaviour eventually meant a disruption in learning for the whole class. Young people suggested a number of different things to solve some of these problems and told us how they would like money to be spent to help reduce the impact that poverty has on education. We have developed these into six recommendations for Welsh Government, Local Authorities, Schools and Governors in Wales. Our recommendations (set out in full at the beginning of this report and in each chapter) outline what young people feel needs to be done to help children in Wales living in poverty to achieve their full educational potential.

We now need decision-makers, schools, teachers and governors to play their role in helping us to make these recommendations come to life – so that all children and young people living in Wales can reach their full potential.

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APPENDIX 1 FIGURE 11 Participant demographic details from the online questionnaire

THE FOLLOWING TABLE PROVIDES A BREAKDOWN OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE THAT COMPLETED THE QUESTIONNAIRE:

FIGURE 12 Participant demographic details from the focus group interviews

THE FOLLOWING TABLE PROVIDES THE DETAILS OF THE FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANTS:

DEMOGRAPHIC

AGE %

NO. GENDER

11

23.5

41

12

19

34

13

39.5

70

14

18

33

%

GEOGRAPHICAL NO. LOCATION

%

NO.

MALE

48.3

86

NORTH WALES

39.5

71

FEMALE

51.7

92

SOUTH WALES

60.5

107

Age (in years) n = 178

Participation details n=22

AGE RANGE

11-14 YEARS

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

GENDER

MALE

7

FEMALE

3 Secondary schools in south wales

15

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APPENDIX 2

HOW WE PLANNED AND COLLECTED THE DATA

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS When we started to think about how we would conduct our research we realised that we had to make decisions that were ethical and valid. This was especially relevant because we wanted to collect data from young people using questionnaires and focus group interviews. We worked with the University of Glamorgan, Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries to complete their ethics application process. For example, we designed a focus group interview guide and questionnaire which both had a pilot phase. Understanding the ethical requirements of good research helped us to ask both ethically relevant questions, in a way everyone would understand and to stop asking these questions when the relevant point in time had been reached.

PLANNING AND DATA COLLECTION We learnt about different types of research methods we could use to collect information from children and young people in Wales. We decided to use a two-stage research process; an online questionnaire and a series of focus groups. We received research training to be able to make these decisions and we decided to use what we know now social scientists call a mixed-method triangulated design, and collected both qualitative and quantitative data. The project made new technologies available to the research team and they were used to support and encourage engagement within the project. This helped to make the research fun and innovative. During the first stage we developed an online questionnaire using SurveyMonkey. The questionnaire was designed for young people aged between 11 and 14 years of age and collected both quantitative and qualitative data. We had a pilot phase in which we asked young people of various ages to complete the questionnaire. The information we received from the pilot phase helped us to make changes and improvements. We carefully considered the locations for the research. We wanted to listen to children and young people who had experience of disadvantage, but we didn’t want to label or further stigmatise individuals as 'poor'. To avoid this we decided to locate our research in areas recording high levels of deprivation (defined by the first 100 deprived areas in the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2011 or very high numbers of pupils entitled to free school meals). To get a picture of the views of children and young people across Wales,

we made sure that we targeted schools in both North and South Wales. The questionnaire was available online for six weeks, from the first week of November 2012 to the first week in December 2012. Respondents were aged between 11 and 14 years. A small number were collected using a paper version and we entered these by hand. Save the Children and the Big Learning Company Wales helped us to raise awareness of the questionnaire with a large number of secondary schools across North and South Wales .e.g. letters were sent to 30 comprehensive schools with the highest percentages of pupils receiving free school meals. We followed up the letters with phone calls to encourage schools to take part. We made personal visits to explain the research to seven schools and a link was made on the Participation Workers Wales website. In addition to this we emailed a link to the questionnaire along with an explanation of the study to a network of schools across Wales. The information we received from the survey was used to develop the questions we went on to ask the 22 participants that took part in the focus groups. We developed questions that would help us to further explore each of the areas we wanted to look at in more detail and also gave us the opportunity to get some more direct quotes from young people about what would help them in and out of school. There were a number of areas that stood out as topics we needed to investigate further. These topics came out as 1) Education and support in and out of school, 2) equipment, 3) confidence and 4) things that obstructed learning. When completing the questionnaire participants could say whether they were interested in taking part in a focus group. A selection of interested participants were contacted in person and offered the choice of taking part in a focus group. Focus group participants were aged between 11 and 14 years of age. We decided to hold three focus groups in total as this would give us a broad range of young people from different areas in Wales and provide further qualitative data for the study. One focus group was held in each of three comprehensive schools in South Wales (Blaengwawr Comprehensive School, Cyfarthfa High School and St. Johns Baptist Church in Wales High School). They were held during November and December 2012. For further information about the project and a full list of the survey questions contact Rachel Wrathall, [email protected]

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REFERENCES I



F.A.S.T. - Families and Schools Together: youtube.com/watch?v=NRxX5x1yftk; Child Poverty and Educational Attainment in the UK: How to break the poverty cycle in 2 minutes: youtube.com/watch?v=Uh6G0rzuLIw; Paul O'Grady UK Poverty Save The Children Appeal Video: youtube.com/watch?v=7kGX4Vl2gEM; European Film school - Poverty tells many stories: youtube.com/watch?v=pSRMeiLljnw

II

Poor Kids (2011), Save the Children

III

David Egan (2012), Communities, Families and Schools Together, Save the Children savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/images Communities-families-and-schools-togetherreport.pdf



Professor Steve Higgins, Dr Dimitra Kokotsaki and Professor Robert Coe (2011) Toolkit of Strategies to Improve Learning Summary for Schools Spending the Pupil Premium, Sutton Trust suttontrust.com/research/toolkit-ofstrategies-to-improve-learning/ VIII

Stephen Gorard et al (2012) The Impact of Attitudes and Aspirations on Educational Attainment and Participation. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Available at: jrf.org.uk/publications/ aspirations-educational-attainment-participation

IX



Tackling Poverty Action Plan 2012 - 2016, Welsh Government wales.gov.uk/topics/socialjustice/ publications/tacklepovactionplan/?lang=en X

Kiernan and Mensah (2011). Poverty, family resources and children’s early educational attainment: the mediating role of parenting. British Educational Research Journal, 37 (2). 317-336.

XI

York Young Researchers (2011) Child Poverty in the City of York, National Youth Agency nya.org.uk/dynamic_files/yrn/researchreports York-research-poverty.pdf IV

V

VI

VII



Anne Crowley and Cea Vulliamy (2002), Listen Up! Children and Young People Talk: About Poverty, Save the Children savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/ docs/wales_lu_pov_1.pdf Goretti Horgan (2009) Speaking Out Against Poverty: voices of children living in disadvantaged areas, Save the Children savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/ docs/SOAP_Booklet_1.pdf Chris Welling and Flora Alexander (2011) Better Odds at School campaign report A Pupil Premium to help close the educational attainment gap, Save the Children savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/ docs/pupil-premium-briefing-england.pdf

Designed by A+B Studio aplusbstudio.com

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Professor Steve Higgins, Dr Dimitra Kokotsaki and Professor Robert Coe (2011) Toolkit of Strategies to Improve Learning Summary for Schools Spending the Pupil Premium, Sutton Trust suttontrust.com/research/toolkit-of-strategiesto-improve-learning/.; Stephen Gorard et al (2012) The Impact of Attitudes and Aspirations on Educational Attainment and Participation. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Available at: jrf.org.uk/publications/aspirations- educational-attainment-participation.

XIII

participationworkerswales.org.uk