Children and young people from low income families in Glasgow can find that costs across the school day act as a barrier to their participation at school. This can make pupils feel excluded and in some cases, may have a direct result on their ability to achieve, research has found.

The main aim was to consider the impact of poverty on the school day, the barriers to participation that this can have for some of our children and young people and how we can improve on current school policies and practices.

As Stephen Curran, Executive Member for Education and Young People explains: “It is estimated in Glasgow that one in three children are in poverty – affecting almost 36,000 of our children.

“This can result in them feeling excluded from school activities, trips, meals or simply finding it difficult to take part in routine school tasks like submitting homework which requires online access.

“We will try to do everything possible that we can to eliminate the obstacles that poverty can create so that every child in Glasgow can have equal access to a quality education.

“The findings and recommendations of this valuable report will shape future polices in Glasgow and build on the good practice and work already being carried out on this area in our schools.

“We have already used the findings of the research to revisit our distance criteria for free home school transport in the city to minimise the financial burdens that so many of our families face daily.”

You can download the executive summary and access the full report via the Child Poverty Action Group website.

Download the press release.

The Cost of the School Day is a Poverty Leadership panel project in partnership with Glasgow City Council and funded and supported by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health.

You can read more about the Cost of the School Day project in Sara Spencer’s blog on the GCPH website.

Find facts about child poverty in Glasgow in our infographic.