Schools should scrap homework that relies on technology, ban non-uniform days and spread “fun” events more evenly through the year, new advice on reducing the impact of poverty on pupils suggests.
Schools are also advised to take a more relaxed approach to uniform and not to ask pupils for set sums of money during charity fundraisers, even if they seem small.
Child-poverty experts say the document from Glasgow City Council marks the first time any Scottish council has published guidance for teachers on reducing the cost of school. There is a blunt message running through it: teachers must be more proactive in helping poor children get the most out of their education.
The advice was presented to all Glasgow teachers just before pupils returned to school, and will be explored in a seminar at next month’s Scottish Learning Festival.
It describes the “toxic impact” of poverty on children’s education and health, which can affect “all parts of the school day”.
Teachers should not assume, for example, that pupils have ICT they can use for homework: “ICT-based homework should not be set unless children and young people without these resources at home are equally able to complete it.”
All pupils should also be able to go on any trip related to the curriculum, regardless of ability to pay. Trips that are “particularly expensive or unrelated to the curriculum” - such as visits to theme parks - will have to be “strongly justified given the likelihood that many children will be unable to participate in them”.
Fundraising events must not exclude pupils, so schools should not demand set donations from pupils “no matter how small”, the document says. And schools should consider whether to run non-uniform days at all, as the pressure to wear fashionable outfits can “make income differences visible”, so less well-off children often skip school on those days.
“The frequency of fun events should be set to ensure that they are spaced sensibly across the year,” states the guidance, referring to the traditional glut of events around Christmas, such as fayres, discos and pantomime trips.
Schools’ uniform policies should be devised with “very minimum costs at the forefront of their minds” and, if pupils do not wear what is expected, teachers’ responses should be guided by whether the child is from a low-income household. Basic resources, such as stationery, meanwhile, should be free to all pupils.
Glasgow’s schools are now also expected to promote to parents the benefits they are entitled to claim, while parent councils’ fundraising should focus on activities that risk excluding or stigmatising certain children. Staff should run “poverty-proofing consultations” - whose results must be included in school improvement plans - with pupils, parents and colleagues.
The Glasgow advice comes as first minister Nicola Sturgeon set out her government’s plans for the next year which included a child poverty bill alongside her education priorities.
Ms Sturgeon said: “I have said that I want to be judged on our success in narrowing and ultimately closing the attainment gap. We must not tolerate a situation where some children from deprived areas do less well at school than those from affluent areas.”