Overcoming Disadvantage

Sonia Blandford, of the charity Achievement for All, spoke to Bexley head teachers at the Head Teacher Forum on 5th July 2018. Her organisation, which runs projects to raise the aspirations and achievement of children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, is currently working with 5000 schools across the country.

The work centres on the child, emphasising that it is difficult to achieve without the desire to want more for yourself, without feeling as though you belong to something and without a sense of self. She explained that children from disadvantaged backgrounds have several factors which they need to be supported to work through such as lack of parental involvement, lack of stimulation, poverty, poor mental health and problems mixing and socialising. One in six children in the UK lives in poverty.

Related documents:

• Presentation – 180705 HTF Achievement for All