Increasingly, it is being recognised that a narrow focus on attainment without taking into account cognisance of the “whole child” is counter-productive. This is reflected within a range of Scottish education policies, such as the National Improvement Framework. However, I would argue that it is not enough to “import” a Scottish version of, say, the London Challenge on the basis of its lauded (but contested) achievements in the hope that, by focusing on the school level, the largely intractable problem of the attainment gap can be overcome.

As course leader for Into Headship at the University of Strathclyde, I became aware of the opportunities that the Scottish Attainment Challenge offers to schools in improving outcomes for children. I also became aware that this is a double-edged sword - it comes with huge accountabilities and pressure on headteachers, their senior leadership teams and staff to deliver and provide evidence of outcomes.

The Scottish Attainment Challenge is part of a much bigger agenda seen in the globalisation of education policy, driven by international comparators such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), big data, a “what works” ideology, the pursuit of “excellence” and a competitive edge between nations.

But is this really serving our children and young people well?

All of the above led me to devote the past three years to examining and analysing the international and national literature, and to bring together the team that organised the Scottish Universities Insight Institute (SUII) seminar series, concluding in March with “Poverty, attainment and wellbeing: making a difference to the lives of children and young people” at the University of Strathclyde.

Our principal focus was on the attainment, mental health and wellbeing of early adolescents living in poverty, although we also explored aspects of physical wellbeing, such as food poverty. A strong theme in the literature is the importance of a sense of belonging to school (see Kathryn Riley’s “We’re a long way from a sense of belonging”, Tes Scotland, 7 June 2019).

This was explored by working with children and young people in St Rose of Lima Primary School, Glasgow and Inverclyde Academy, Greenock. Through reading, drawings, writing and photography, the children shared what a sense of belonging to school meant to them, leading to a short film hosted on the SUII website. Through a range of excellent and varied contributions, many rich insights emerged from the seminar series. Below are some of the key issues.

The attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers is an international problem and social inequality lies at its root

Scotland is not alone in having a disparity between the attainment of children living in poverty and other children. According to Wilkinson and Pickett (2018), it is the degree to which the society you live in is equitable or inequitable that determines an extensive range of social, health and educational outcomes. Of the rich nations surveyed, the UK ranked as the third most unequal society. Greater inequality has an impact on social relationships and the levels of trust within a society, damaging children’s life chances, wellbeing and educational attainment.

Inclusion must be placed at the heart of ‘closing the gap’

Attainment gaps are not restricted to poverty. There is clear evidence of disparities in attainment with regard to gender, disability, race and ethnicity, with many children lying at the intersection (Parsons, 2016).

According to Scottish government statistics published in 2018 and 2019, twice as many children in the lowest quintile of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (28.7 per cent) have been identified as having additional support needs (ASN) in comparison with those in the highest quintile (14 per cent). They are five times more likely to be temporarily excluded from school. Of these, the most represented category is children with social, emotional and behavioural needs: the attainment of this group is significantly below that of other children with ASN.

While there are tentative signs that the attainment, leaver destinations and exclusions “gap” is beginning to close, there is, as yet, no clear statistical trend. There are some children living in poverty who are significantly at greater risk of underachievement than others. This implies that we need to focus holistically on young people’s needs, taking account of the multiple ways they can be marginalised and disadvantaged. And inclusion must lie at the heart of “closing the gap”.

The mental health ‘epidemic’

Internationally, growing concerns about the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people (particularly anxiety and depression in teenage girls) have been highlighted by various bodies domestically and internationally, including Unicef and the World Health Organisation, and the Growing Up in Scotland study.

At age 7, children in Glasgow in the most deprived areas were 3.5 times more likely to experience mental health difficulties than those in the least (Marryat et al, 2017). The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study (Scotland) report highlights that, on a wide range of measures of subjective wellbeing (for example, life satisfaction), girls respond less positively than boys.

On 14 March, MSPs called for a study of the impact of social media on the mental health of children and young people, and drew attention to the lack of current data on mental health within this population, and how well or badly mental health services are meeting this need.

Previously, the Scottish Youth Parliament highlighted a lack of awareness among young people of the services available to them; difficulties in accessing services (often too late and at a point at which things had become critical); a lack of awareness about their rights in relation to them; and a lack of credibility in the guidance offered (Scottish Youth Parliament, 2016; Mowat, 2019). For those children and young people living in poverty experiencing mental health difficulties, not addressing these concerns means the gap is likely to remain and the impact on their wellbeing will be significant.

The importance of strong social and support networks

Evidence shows us something that really matters: the nature, quality and strength of social and support networks around communities, families and children.

The Growing Up in Scotland study points to the negative impact of a mother’s distress arising from her financial vulnerability as she tries to make ends meet. This affects her capacity to create a loving home, leading to distress, particularly in younger children, which, when compounded with the stigma associated with poverty, has a negative impact on all children and young people in the family - affecting their wellbeing and, ultimately, their attainment.

While adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) cross all social classes, eight-year-old children in Scotland in the lowest income quintile are 10 times more likely to have experienced four or more ACEs than their more fortunate peers in the top quintile. On a more positive note, Smith (2018) found that a “significant other” in the life of the child, whether a caregiver, teacher or confidante, can promote resilience in the child or young person.

School as a place where I belong

Kathryn Riley’s Tes Scotland essay, which I referred to at the start of this article, makes a strong case that a sense of belonging to school underpins wellbeing and academic outcomes. This is particularly important for children living in poverty for whom school may represent a safe haven (Riley, 2017). Positive relationships lie at the heart of a sense of belonging and are very much determined by the ethos and climate within the school and quality of school leadership.

However, as Riley intimated, it’s not always the case that children and young people have a sense of belonging - some are “looking in from outside” and the school community feels like a place of “them and us”.

In her keynote address at the SUII event in March, Riley raised some fundamental questions: “Is our school a place where everyone feels they belong? If not, what are we going to do about it?” Educational transitions, as Tes Scotland has previously highlighted, can disrupt a child’s sense of belonging at their school (“How to get your primary pupils ready for the jump up to secondary school”, 22 March 2019 and “Lost in transition”, 7 June 2019).

Schools alone cannot ‘close the gap’

While the recent survey evaluating the Scottish Attainment Fund indicated that 88 per cent of headteachers were seeing progress in “closing the gap”, the scale of the problem remains significant and extends beyond education and schooling.

Schools alone cannot solve this and should not be held solely accountable for addressing it. There needs to be a concerted effort across all areas of public and fiscal policy, extending beyond the period of a single government and the boundaries of party politics, to address the inequities in society under which children and young people underachieve. The Scottish government, through the 2017 Child Poverty Act, has set goals of having fewer than 10 per cent of children living in relative poverty and fewer than 5 per cent in absolute poverty by 2030.

However, concerns have been raised that UK welfare reforms and local authority budget cuts are counteracting the efforts to eradicate childhood poverty - by robbing Peter to pay Paul (see “Tackling the pupil equity paradox”, Tes Scotland, 31 May 2019).

The danger of us fiddling at the edges while Rome burns

Without a strong infrastructure of support around schools and investment in services (such as high-quality pre-5 education, educational psychologists, child and adolescent mental health services and homeschool link workers) and strong communities, we are likely to make only minimal inroads in addressing the problem and our efforts will not be sustainable. With the current financial climes and economic uncertainties generated by Brexit, things will be tough.

We need to consider the systemic issues that underlie the problem. What in the school system makes it more likely that children will disengage from learning? What are the systems, structures, values, beliefs and prejudices that make school a place where some children belong and others do not? It is imperative that the policy community, higher education and public services collaborate, creating the space for dialogue and high-quality research so that a deeper understanding of the problem and its potential solutions can emerge.

We need to put the mental health and wellbeing of young people, and an ethos of care and inclusion, at the heart of addressing the “poverty-related attainment gap” while investing in the teaching workforce and the highest-quality pedagogy. Despite all of the above, there is hope: collectively, and individually, we can make a difference.

Joan Mowat is a senior lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Strathclyde. A former depute headteacher, she is course leader of the university’s Into Headship programme

This article originally appeared in the 19 July 2019 issue under the headline “Mind the gap: why equality and inclusion are key to attainment”