Child Poverty Action Group: "When you're poor, you give up on your dreams"

I preface the below from Child Poverty Action Group by stating that I believe that dreaming often makes 'reality' more bearable.

Alan Wheatley

As children go back to school, CPAG is striving to make sure children can make the most of their school day. Please send a donation today.

Hello Alan

As the new school year starts, many children will be sharing exciting holiday stories with friends, showing off a new lunchbox or pencil case, or making their way to school on their own for the first time on their new bike! Yet, for nine children in a classroom of 30, it’s a completely different story.

"I struggle to keep up with charges [at school] on what seems to be a non-stop basis. I have nothing more to cut
back on. Life is already hard enough and [we] risk children being labelled or bullied because their parents can't afford
to keep up." — Mark, single parent of 2 girls

The start of the school year shines a spotlight on the poverty that, for some children, takes away the joy of childhood and limits their life chances.

"When you're poor, you give up on your dreams" — 10-year-old Sophie

Children can’t learn when they can’t participate or when they are unhappy. Additional school costs can be a major burden on poorer families. This affects children’s experiences at school – what they can do, what they can take part in, how they feel and how they learn. From uniform, travel and trips to learning materials, lunch and clubs, there are so many costs that often unwittingly stigmatise and exclude children living in poverty. Not being able to take part can leave children feeling different and embarrassed.

Whether you have children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews in school or not, we can all agree that every child should be able to make the most of their schooldays.

"I didnae want to pay 50p on Home Eccies [Economics].
I didn't want to pay that because ... that takes money off my lunch..." — 15-year-old Ewan

Poverty restricts children’s learning and experiences at school. It doesn’t have to be this way.

This is why CPAG launched its Cost of the School Day project five years ago in Scotland. Since then, we’ve been working with children, parents and teachers in schools across Scotland to identify actions schools can take which help tackle financial barriers to children’s participation, learning and wellbeing throughout the school day. From next month, we will be scaling up our work to 155 schools across England, Scotland and Wales, taking the successes of the Cost of the School Day project across the country, working in partnership with Children North East.

Please donate now to CPAG to continue to challenge poverty-producing policies and practices.

Your support has already helped CPAG achieve real and lasting change to the lives of children across the country. With more children becoming locked into poverty, we need your donations more than ever.

If you've recently donated, we're extremely grateful for your generosity and thank you for taking the time to read this. 

Yours sincerely,

Kate Anstey

UK Project and Partnerships Development Manager: Cost of the School Day

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