To think the issue of poor white boys failing at school is overlooked?

[hibbledibble]

They have the worst outcome of any group.

I highly recommend watching H is for Harry, documentary film which is available currently on Netflix, and highlights this issue.

It's about a boy with SEN, including illiteracy, and his experience in a mainstream school over two years.

It brought tears to my eyes. It was great to see how much progress he made in small group teaching, but sad that his difficulties in class meant him eventually being excluded from the school, and there was not much information given as to what happened to him following this.

It's heartbreaking that this boy could have done really well with ongoing intense intervention, but that the barrier to this is funding. It seemed at the end that the school gave up on him, as he just spent time in the nursery.

I would be curious to hear others views.

At the end of the day it's a tough world. And for some it's harder - a shit family, a shit home and a shit school. They'll be poorly educated and never escape it. That's poverty. And even with all the money in the world, you can't fix every single family who thinks school us an enemy and anyone making an effort to get a decent job is 'forgetting where you came from, you too good for us now?'

You can get your teeth and try to overcome the hurdles, or sink. Life is just hard when you're poor. But nothing, no intervention, will make educational apathy disappear.

All our school focus’s on are students who are pupil premium- they even collect in a random sample of their books every month for a book scrutiny

Totally agree. In a few years time this will be the new focus.

It’s also a real Ofsted focus, last time they came in all they did was want data for these students

The under-performance, relative to other groups, of white, working class boys is well-documented in the literature. I don't think this is news to anyone working in education

But nothing, no intervention, will make educational apathy disappear.

This!

The poor kids from nonwhite backgrounds sometimes have more family/community support for education.

I would agree with the barrier being funding- this is shit but a lot can be done which doesn’t cost much, all PO students in my school have a personalised profile which is regularly sent to their teachers, we have to mark our PP kids books first when we mark a class, their books get checked regularly by SLT, breakfast club, peer mentoring, loads of other things going on which may not be publicised but goes on daily

You know what helped poor white boys? Sure Start. A shame the Conservatives were voted in and cut the funding by two thirds.

They also forced ongoing (year on year) council budget cuts that has cut local authority’s funding to youth services by almost £1billion. This has also lead directly to halving funding for early intervention services.

www.ymca.org.uk/outofservice
www.ncb.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/news-opinion/councils-forced-halve-spending-early-help

If you care about poor, white boys maybe vote for someone who doesn’t go out of their way to cut funding to existing services designed to help them.

It was great to see how much progress he made in small group teaching, but sad that his difficulties in class meant him eventually being excluded from the school
He wasn't suited to mainstream education. He needed a smaller environment.

Yabu to think this is not already a focus. It is. But schools are battling the culture at home and in their shitty communities which tells these boys school is pointless. Grades are pointless. Teachers are to be ignored. Poor behaviour is acceptable. They did nothing at school and they're ok. They're not. They're often living in poverty with ongoing safeguarding issues but they have no reference as to what is normal.

You need to as why they have the worst outcome in school. And then work out how you fix their families and local communities.

@WhatScratch

You know what helped poor white boys? Sure Start. A shame the Conservatives were voted in and cut the funding by two thirds.

They also forced ongoing (year on year) council budget cuts that has cut local authority’s funding to youth services by almost £1billion. This has also lead directly to halving funding for early intervention services.

www.ymca.org.uk/outofservice
www.ncb.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/news-opinion/councils-forced-halve-spending-early-help

If you care about poor, white boys maybe vote for someone who doesn’t go out of their way to cut funding to existing services designed to help them.

This. It doesn't help that so many parents of this population vote Tory because it's 'aspirational'.

@OnceuponaRainbow18
Marking PP books first is a bonkers policy. How does that help? Ditto SLT book checking them, what happens with that info?
Mentoring is a good thing as long as it is done by trained people.
A personalised profile for PP kids would mean me reading approx 350 of them... Again I'd question why? I'm glad it works in your school but I assume your PP percentage is lowish.

You need to as why they have the worst outcome in school. And then work out how you fix their families and local communities.

This.

The fixing requires money and lots of it.

I don't understand why your title says poor white boys when the example you use is a boy with SEN? You left that out of the title

@Hercisback
Marking- they say you are less tired when you mark book 1-15 than 15-30! And to be fist sometime when I have 3 left I rush to finish

SLT checks- want to check they are doing the work to a good standard, probably makes teachers mark better as well

Mentoring- well trained older kids and works v well

Personalised profile- you might only need
To read 20 as might not have issues with others

We have 55% of school PP

@WhatScratch

You know what helped poor white boys? Sure Start. A shame the Conservatives were voted in and cut the funding by two thirds.

They also forced ongoing (year on year) council budget cuts that has cut local authority’s funding to youth services by almost £1billion. This has also lead directly to halving funding for early intervention services.

www.ymca.org.uk/outofservice
www.ncb.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/news-opinion/councils-forced-halve-spending-early-help

If you care about poor, white boys maybe vote for someone who doesn’t go out of their way to cut funding to existing services designed to help them.

👏👏👏

@OnceuponaRainbow18
I'm actually horrified to read such BS coming from a SLT but I'm not really surprised. Marking PP books first isn't going to fix anything. In the spirit of Christmas I'll leave my opinion there!

SLT checking on marking, again bollocks. Fair enough checking the kids work. Marking doesn't mean good T&L has taken place.

I'd love to know if your SLT has any evidence any of their policies actually work.

Poor white boys haven't been the current politically correct cause though so it's not surprising they have been overlooked.

Children with SEN?
I doubt white boys have it worst in that area tbh. Due to masking, etc, girls generally get help with SEN later. Then, there are those whose parents don’t even have English as their first language to explain difficulties, etc.

I’ve been hearing about this issue but I haven’t seen any evidence of this in the schools I’ve worked with. It must exist if it’s being raised now but I hope the causes behind the situation is identified and adressed.

@Mouseonmychair

Poor white boys haven't been the current politically correct cause though so it's not surprising they have been overlooked.

Yeah because ALL the money goes to black kids doesn't it. Is that what you mean? Spoiler alert. It doesn't. And don't vote Tory if that's what you did.

@DickMabutt73962

I don't understand why your title says poor white boys when the example you use is a boy with SEN? You left that out of the title

Click bait methinks. Sex it up with a bit of race baiting. On Christmas day as well .

The reason its pulled down is because GRT boys are included in white boy statistics. Without them included stats rise massively. White working class girls stats are affected in a similar way. So its not necessarily about them being white its the fact they are working class. Working class boys of other races often do better because initiatives are aimed at them. While those initiatives don’t necessarily mitigate all working class disadvantages they a, overlap in places and b, if you give a working class child a chance they thrive. Almost always.

The main things that need to be addressed is GRT education opportunities and working class opportunities. Thats what SureStart thrived at. Early identification of potential SEN, early intervention, early socialisation.

So in short if you really care about opportunities for white working class boys you need to support a political party that values them. On no occasion in history has that political party been the Conservatives.

Underachievement of white boys has been an issue for years. This is a systemic issue, which will not be fixed any time soon and has much more deep rooted issues than apply to one child with SEN who required a different type of school.

Sounds like the issue here was unmet SEN rather than just the fact it’s a white boy (which is also a focus for ofsted)

Particulary for those with SEN so much of
It comes down to how much parents/schools can fight the system to get the support needed. Ds was at risk of not meeting his potential and was really struggling at school until we got an EHCP and the right support (1-1 in his case)

Thanks for reminding me about this programme. I plan to watch it.
My own working class white boy has ASD and really struggled at school.
We were lucky, in a way, that the lockdown gave us a "trial run" at home education.

He did much better at home and I haven't sent him back. It's exciting to see how much more he can achieve in a more relaxed environment, with a curriculum based on his own interests.
But I also worry about his future if he can't ever integrate back into the school system.
He goes to academic support sessions once a week with a charity but the level of work he produces in that environment (similar to a very small quiet classroom) is much lower than he's capable of at home.
I agree with the PP that said classrooms aren't suitable for everyone.

Agreed 100% with sirzy that support for children with additional needs in schools largely depends on the child having parents who understand the system and understand how to ensure the child gets what they need. Sadly ot also can come down to the parent having funds to get independent reports. Both of my children have EHCPs. My oldest I didn't understand the system when her plan was initially done and she continued to fail and fall apart. I learnt how it works, get her plan redone and made sure my 5 year oldest was written correctly from day one.