According to a new report by a headteachers’ union Schools have become “an unofficial fourth emergency service” for disadvantaged students across England and Wales, offering food parcels, shews, clothing and laundry facilities.
The Association of Schools and College Leaders (ASCL) has published new figures today showing the extent to which schools are coping with pupil poverty.
ASCL said they were seeing a “rising tide” of poverty among their pupils, at a time when they were having to cut their own budgets and receiving less support from local councils.
Its survey shows nine in 10 state funded secondary schools have provided clothing for pupils and found that 47 percent of headteachers also said they washed clothes for pupils.
Geoff Barton, the ASCL’s general secretary said “They have become an unofficial fourth emergency service for poor and vulnerable children, providing food and clothing and filling in the gaps left by cutbacks to local services.
“Politicians must end their fixation with Brexit and work together to build a new sense of social mission in our country. We simply must do better for struggling families and invest properly in our schools, colleges and other vital public services.”
Sarah Bone, headteacher of Headlands school said: “We have far too many children with no heating in the home, no food in the cupboards, washing themselves with cold water, walking to school with holes in their shoes and trousers that are ill-fitted and completely worn out, and living on one hot meal a day provided at school.”
>Juthy Saha
