Material deprivation

• Material deprivation

  Poverty and a lack of resources, seen as a factor in pupil's underachievement
• Poverty and educational underachievement

  Are closely linked
• Barely 1/3 of pupils eligible for FSM got 5 or more GCSEs at A-C, compared to 2/3 of pupils who did and aren't FSM
• Family's money problems are a huge factor in young pupils' poor attendance
• Exclusion & truancy are more likely for children from poor families
• 1/3 of persistent truants leave with no qualifications, and many of those excluded don't return to mainstream
• Almost 90% of failing schools are in deprived areas
• Factors in material deprivation


  • Housing
  • Diet & health
  • Financial support & the cost of education
  • Fear of debt
• Poor housing


  • Affects pupil's education like overcrowding stopping them from having a place to focus and study, or having disrupted sleep from shared rooms
  • Young children's development is impaired through lack of space for safe exploration, and constantly moving from temporary accommodation affects schooling too
  • Can also cause pupils to become ill frequently, which affects attendance and therefore learning quality
• Young people from poor homes have lower intakes of vitamins/minerals/energy, which affects education weakening their immune system and causing low attendance
• Children from poor homes are more likely to have emotional/behaviour problems, which negatively impacts their educational achievement
• Lack of financial support in poorer families


  • Means children go without equipment and miss educational opportunities that raise achievement
  • The cost of free schooling, books, transport, uniform, etc puts a heavy burden on poor families
  • Hand-me downs/cheaper items can result in children being bullied/isolated/stigmatised by peers, which is why 20% of those eligible for FSM don't take them
  • Poverty acts a barrier to learning, like not being able to afford tuition or private school
• Cultural capital


  The knowledge, skills, values, abilities and tastes of the middle class
• MC culture is a type of capital because their abilities and interests are an advantage in school as they're valued, while WC culture is seen as rough/inferior by schools, which devalues pupils from this background
• Having cultural capital often equals success in education as it's a MC habitus, and WC pupils are left to underachieve
• Cultural, educational and economic capital


  Can all be converted into one another
• MC pupils with cultural capital are more equipped to meet the demands of the school curriculum and get qualifications, giving them educational capital
• Wealthy parents can convert economic capital into educational capital by sending their children to the best private schools on the league table
• Those who read complex fiction and watched serious documentaries had more cultural capital due to having a wider vocabulary and cultural knowledge, but MC pupils still performed better, which could be because they have economic and educational capital alongside cultural capital